"Methamphetamines and the Brain" is a webinar designed with a harm reduction lens to help individuals understand the physiological effects of methamphetamines. This webinar will help identify how understanding these physiological effects play a crucial role in individual practice. This webinar will discuss neurotransmitters and their function in over amping and psychosis. Later in the presentation, we will dive into what happens to the brain when an individual stops using methamphetamines. Science plays a vital role in how we, as front-line workers, respond to methamphetamine over amping and psychosis; understanding these body reactions will help develop a greater understanding.

Instructor: Hailey Mawer 

Hailey Mawer is a Registered Nurse and Owner/ Co-Founder of Westside Harm Reduction; she has been an activist for people's human rights and public health who use drugs for more than a decade. Hailey has a passion for evidence-based care and dismantling problematic policies, practices and structural stigma through; education, program development, and consulting with organizations to develop and implement harm reduction frameworks, guidelines, and quality improvement initiatives. She provides both in-person and virtual learning opportunities across both Alberta and B.C.

Hailey started her nursing career in sexual health and played a founding role in the opening and developing of the first Sexual Health clinic, providing health services to Maskwacis, Treaty 6. Since then, Hailey has been working tirelessly to build capacity, develop policies and frameworks and implement quality improvement initiatives to reduce mortality rates associated with the drug poisoning crisis and systemic necropolitics that impact the most vulnerable. After implementing quality improvement initiatives, an organization saw a 96% reduction in overdoses/drug poisonings recently.

As a clinician, educator, consultant, and advocate with a passion for reducing social and institutional inequities, she aims to bridge gaps in knowledge related to sex, drugs, and harm reduction through culturally safe and evidence-based services.