CLARK COUNTY — The Clark County needle exchange is about one to two months from being operational, according to Clark County Health Officer Dr. Kevin Burke.
Since approved for the exchange in August, the Clark County Health Department has identified need for a six-month budget for the program of approximately $50,000, a small portion of which includes startup costs.
About $15,000 will be used to purchase the needles and syringes. Although legislation has recently changed allowing it, the department will not be able to use federal or state funds at this time to purchase the supplies because it is operating under an agreement made before the change in legislation.
Burke said the department has filed a grant application with the Health Foundation of Greater Indianapolis to help with funding the syringes, but does not have a timeline yet on the response.
“We have communicated with them by email and they know we can't do anything further until we get the funds,” he said. “I'm hoping that it will be fairly soon; I'm hoping that it will be this month, but I don’t have a specific timeline.”
The foundation supports most of the other exchanges in the state, as well, Burke said, so he expects that an approval is likely.
“I'd originally estimated one or two months (on implementation of the exchange),” Burke said. “I'd say again one or two months from now is what we're looking at ,but because I don't have hard dates, it's harder to be more specific than that.”
The department has also applied for supplemental funds from the North American Syringe Exchange Network.
“They have a small startup grant and very competitive pricing on needles, syringes and other items,” Burke said. “That's another source of income and discounts that will help us afford to do the most service at the lowest cost.”
Burke has been working with Dr. Carrie Lawrence, post-doctorate fellow of the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention at Indiana University, on getting a training program organized for volunteers.
He said it will likely be a four- to six-hour session “to get people up to speed so they have knowledge of what they’re doing and the skills to deal with this population,” he said. “We have to be welcoming and helpful, encouraging ... we want to make the individuals who participate in the exchange to be satisfied with the service and feel that they were not being criticized or judged.
“We're there to help them decrease the risk of complications that come from the IV drug use.”
Burke said the plan is to have volunteers lined up and prepared around the time funding becomes available, or even before.
“Once we are able to purchase the needles and syringes, hopefully we'll have our volunteers lined up and ready to go at that point,” he said.