Atika is a harm reduction practitioner in Vancouver, BC with a decade of experience. As a first-generation Indonesian immigrant from a low-income background, she maintains strong connections with street communities. Her advocacy began in high school, promoting wider, free naloxone access for youth which at her time was very difficult to obtain. Atika is excited to join Youth RISE to advocate for global drug policy reform that incorporates full-spectrum harm reduction for youth.
She founded The J Healthcare Initiative, a non-profit organization aimed at empowering healthcare choices for people who use drugs by addressing the lack of treatment diversification for opioid users. The organization has sponsored over 2,500 hours of harm reduction projects across Canadian and U.S. higher education institutions, engaging future healthcare professionals in addressing the toxic drug crisis.
Collaborating with McGill Desautels Data Analytics students, Atika developed RAPID (Real-time Alert Platform for Informed Decisions), the first standardized drug alert criteria. This platform is slated for nationwide implementation.
Her research interests are: Compositional variability in illicit synthetic opioids, expanding and diversifying treatment options for opioid and stimulant use disorders, developing strategies to improve retention rates among high-risk populations in substance use treatment programs.
Atika has contributed significantly to national drug policy through: Co-authoring a policy brief for the Canadian Parliament’s Standing Committee on Health, endorsed by over 90 organizations and experts, which influenced the codification of Section 56 exemption, leading a cohort of young harm reduction practitioners in producing a paper on young opioid users for Youth RISE. Internationally, she participates in drug policy reform through involvement with: Vienna NGO Committee on Drugs, Global imPACT coalition, Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats.