NEWS

Clark Co. gets $7K to start needle exchange

Madeleine Winer
Courier-Journal

Clark County has secured funding for its needle exchange, but it won't be enough to sustain the program for even six months.

Health Commissioner Dr. Kevin Burke said the county received $7,000 from the Health Foundation of Greater Indianapolis that will be used to purchase supplies. But an estimated $15,000 is needed to sustain supplies for a needle exchange for at least six months.

"We are restricted in using funds to purchase needles and syringes," Burke said in an interview Friday. "Our current grants don't allow us to use existing funding to start the program."

Burke said he plans to get the program started by November and apply for grants to keep the program running. Carolyn King, community advocate with Clark County Cares, said the group is also seeking private donations to help the needle exchange get started.

"There’s no reason not to fund these programs as part of a public health issue," King said. "Addiction is a disease. ... Hepatitis C and HIV can shorten people's lives. I don’t think it should be treated differently from any other disease."

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Betty Wilson, president and CEO of the Greater Health Foundation of Indianapolis, said the foundation has helped fund most of the needle exchange programs in the state. So far it has allocated $125,000 to get many of Indiana's syringe exchange programs started.

"There is, in my opinion, the wrong-headed attitude that providing materials for people to stay healthy promotes drug use," she said. "It’s just wrong-headed. The more people we help stay healthy, the more of an opportunity we have to encourage them to get into treatment and change their lifestyle."

Wilson said the foundation determines the size of its grants based on the services the county plans to provide out of its needle exchange programs.

"For Clark County, $7,000 is a modest amount to what their need is, but their program is limited in the onset," Wilson said. "As soon as it gets up and running and they start expanding hours of service, we will be able to increase the amount."

According to its application to the state, Clark County's program, called The Exchange, will be open one day a week to start and be run out of the health clinic on Akers Avenue in Jeffersonville. Burke has said the county plans to eventually have a mobile unit that could take the exchange to more rural areas of the county.

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Burke said the next step to get the program running is a training program for volunteers. Clark County's program is the second in the state that would be to be volunteer-based. He said he is looking for a trainer for the volunteer program, which would last for three to four hours for those interested in helping run the program.

So far, eight counties in Indiana have been approved by the state for needle exchange programs. Allen County's program was the latest to meet state approval, which it did at the beginning of the month.

Madeleine Winer is the Southern Indiana communities reporter for the Courier-Journal. Contact her at 502-582-4087 or mrwiner@courier-journal.com.

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