Service reflection tool

The Action Planning Rubric can help you and your service reflect on harm reduction in your spaces. It has ten questions to help your team reflect on your current harm reduction practices and brainstorm ways harm reduction could be developed or expanded. It was created and trialled by harm reduction services in Aotearoa and is based on the values that guide harm reduction practice in Aotearoa. 

You could: 

• Download the rubric (DOCX, 375 KB), which gives several examples of how to effectively focus discussion and action planning. The bolded words in the rubric indicate what is different between each option.
• Talk openly with your whole team using the ten prompt questions below. 

Suggested process: 

1. Prepare. Read through the questions below and the rubric (DOCX, 375 KB) and decide which questions would work best for your team to discuss. Consider any other information sources that could help inform the meeting, such as feedback from people who access your service (who could also be involved in the discussion). 
2. Teams reflect together. Incorporate everyone involved in the service, including administration staff. The discussion is more important than getting consensus of which level the service is currently at.  
3. Record potential actions. Someone taking notes should record and briefly describe potential actions that are brainstormed during the discussion. 
4. Prioritise actions. The team reflects on the discussion and the potential actions that were identified and prioritises some to work on. In some cases, the service may only have capacity to do one service-development action well. 
5. Schedule a time to reflect on progress. This reflection could involve again using the rubric to guide the conversation and comparing with the one previously completed.  

Questions to discuss as a team: 

Use these questions to prompt discussion. Try to help people discuss them honestly, avoiding people feeling blamed or answering the questions based on what they think people want to hear. 

Ultimately, this process is about discovering ways to strengthen the service so people can get the best possible information, tools, and support. 

1. How much coercion, judgement, or discrimination might people experience in the service? 
2. Are staff confident in having conversations with people about how to reduce substance use risks (and if so, how confident are they)? 
3. Can people access information, tools, and support without committing to reducing or stopping their substance use?  
4. Are people allowed the autonomy to make their own decisions? How much so? 
5. How does the service prevent potential health, social, and legal harms for people who use substances? 
6. How does evidence inform the information and advice shared with people? 
7. How does the service present all relevant health and support options to each person? 
8. How are confidentiality and boundaries explained to people? 
9. How thoroughly does the service connect and collaborate with other harm reduction services to stand against coercion, judgement, and discrimination of people who use substances? 
10. How does the service protect space for whānau, hapū, and iwi to set and reach their own aspirations?