Syringe program part of larger drug mitigation effort

MOSES LAKE — The complexities that substance abuse leaves in its wake present a challenge to public health organizations as well as individuals and families. Grant County Health District officials work to address the challenge with a program designed to reduce the effects, not only on substance users and the people around them, but also on everybody else. 

Health district Administrator Theresa Adkinson said the “harm reduction” program provides a lot of different services, one of them being an exchange of used syringe needles for new ones.  

“We’re always discouraging sharing of needles, but the needles are a real small part of the program overall,” Adkinson said. “A lot of times it’s what gets them to come visit with us, but we’ll have people that don’t inject drugs come see us to get access to Naloxone, which is another harm reduction intervention that we have.” 

Naloxone also is known as Narcan and can counter the effects of an opioid overdose. 

Mariah Deleon, GCHD harm reduction coordinator, used the example of GCHD staff meeting with people in Civic Center Park near the Moses Lake Public Library. In that case the outreach effort didn’t include a needle exchange, but it did include Narcan kits.  

“We’ve provided beanies, for example, if it’s really cold outside. We’ve provided safety materials, we’ve provided hygiene kits and hygiene materials, and first aid kits, because the population that was congregating outside the library was homeless,” Deleon said. “We were giving them basic life necessities so that they could get to the next day. And then we were offering referral services.” 

Adkinson said the research indicates that a harm reduction program doesn’t encourage drug use. 

“In fact it’s going to increase the opportunities for people to get treatment. Every interaction we have with one of our clients, we are asking them if they’re ready for treatment, is there anything that they need to assist them in getting ready for treatment. But there is no evidence that we aware of that supports that utilization of a needle exchange is going to encourage (people) to use more drugs,” Adkinson said.  

“It is a fair question,” Adkinson added. “And I see why people would be concerned.” 

The GCHD has established programs in Moses Lake and Grand Coulee. Services are offered in other communities around Grant County in conjunction with local officials, Adkinson said. 

“We do outreach in all of the communities,” Deleon said. “We don’t necessarily do the (syringe program) there, but we do things like targeted Naloxone distribution.” 

Adkinson said it’s important to distribute Naloxone, or Narcan, to people who aren’t dealing with drug use. 

“It’s really about protecting the whole community,” she said. “Yes, we want it in the hands of those at highest risk. But there are unintentional exposures that could happen.” Adkinson cited the case of an accidental overdose of a family member.  

In the GCHD experience drug use is shifting, Adkinson said, and the risk of accidental exposure is changing. 

“For the most part our (syringe exchange) clients are transitioning from meth and heroin to fentanyl,” Adkinson said. “So a lot of the time our clients are coming to us just asking for the Narcan, rather than the syringes.” 

Typically fentanyl is not injected, and the foil that’s used to take it can be dangerous to people that come in contact with it. As a result GCHD is looking at ways to reduce the possibility of exposure. 

“At times, we’ll have safe disposal kits that we put together and distribute to the community, where they’ve got tongs and containers to put things in, so there’s no skin-to-device contact. Sometimes it's a cleanup event, just ensuring we’re getting things cleaned up,” Adkinson said. “As funding allows, we’ll create more safe disposal kits, and those are for the community.” 

The harm reduction program was implemented to address some of the problems that came with drug use, in this case used and discarded syringe needles, she said.  

“We started this in 2016 when needles were very prevalent in the community,” Adkinson said.  

“It started as a conversation with our Board of Health. We spent four months discussing the evidence (and) what other models look like. We really took our time with our board,” Adkinson said. “Then it was about a year and a half before we opened our doors to our first client. 

“(The GCHD board) said, ‘You must have other partners, it cannot be just a GCHD program, and you must provide services beyond just exchanging needles.’ And we’ve held to that to this day,” Adkinson said.  

“We are one small segment in this battle with this program, and we want to continue to work with community leaders, our people with lived drug experience and those currently struggling with it, to create the best programs we can across our community,” she said.