The county is in the business of helping addicts obtain clean syringes and supplies to assist people who choose to use illegal drugs, like heroin.
Although the idea seems contrary to the idea of stopping illegal drug use, the Point of Hope Fayette County Syringe Exchange Harm Reduction initiative has a goal that serves all residents: to reduce the spread of disease.
Dirty syringes, supplies and water that are used to fix those drugs associated with them, are mostly used in unsanitary conditions. It’s those conditions that can spread HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and hepatitis C and tuberculosis.
Fayette County Health Department Nurse Paula Maupin needed help in the syringe exchange program. She had grant money that would pay for hiring an assistant who could work with clients, hear their stories, not be judgmental, and possibly get addicts the help they need to regain control of their lives and break the cycle of addiction.
She found that help in a woman named Charmin Gabbard. Not only has Gabbard come to the aid of the program, she is also a former heroin addict herself.
Maupin says she and Gabbard come from opposite ends of the spectrum. “We complement each other,” Maupin said. “I have absolutely no experience with addiction. I have the empathy. I have to have my coffee in the morning; that’s my biggest addiction. I have the empathy and the compassion for people and the medical background.
“Charmin has the experience; she can relate to them on that level. She has a lot of knowledge as far as treatment. She is able to really help them with those options, get them the help that they need. I can do a lot of the medical treatment, get them the help there that they need, but she just has already been able to offer so much help to people that come in and get them the treatment they need.”
The Point of Hope initiative offers services to addicts, including, but not limited to:
• Syringe exchange, clean ones for used one, including disposal kits;
• Free naloxone (Narcan) overdose kits;
• Testing for HIV and hepatitis;
• Eligibility in HIP 2.0;
• Referrals for treatment for HIV, hepatitis;
• Vaccinations for hep A and B, Tdap – known as Tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis are very serious diseases. Tdap vaccine can protect against these diseases. Tdap vaccine is also administered to pregnant women and can protect newborn babies against pertussis., HPV (Human papillomavirus is a viral infection that is passed between people through skin-to-skin contact, i.e., warts, genital);
• TB evaluation and testing; and
• Education, overdose prevention, wound care and disease transmission.
Gabbard has experienced the gamut of treatment options that are available to addicts. The supportive therapeutic community at the Madison Correctional Facility during her last prison stint was key to her recovery, but mostly, her faith in God cured her taste for dope.
“When I see someone walk through the door, I don’t see just a drug addict,” Gabbard said. “A see a human being that has, at some point in their life, had some sort of traumatic experience.
“By the time they make it here to us, they’re in a hopeless situation. They feel as if they have no future. Everyone they know has done give up on them, because of where they’re at or the shame they have brought on their family; we have resources available to help them.”
Of the resources available, Gabbard’s own downward spiral into the world of addiction is perhaps the single, most valuable resource that is helping addicts she now counsels through Point of Hope.
“You want my honest answer,” Maupin asked of how addiction can be broken. “Prayer. That has been my gut driving force. He’s been the driving force behind this. You can’t deny it. I’m doing this because God has guided me to do it.”
Maupin found Gabbard through the Fayette County Drug Coalition. In fact, Gabbard is the first and only convicted felon to be appointed to that group, Maupin said.
Gabbard has a response to those who believe having syringe exchange program is unnecessary. “They’re not looking at the big picture,” she counters. “What we’re doing here is trying to reduce the spread of AIDS, hepatitis, and other diseases throughout our community. So, not only are we able to have that direct contact which we are able to intervene in the addict’s life, and to show them love, instead of judgment.
“What we get to do, hope at some point, we’re able to get them treatment. As society is looking at it as we’re just enabling that person, what we’re doing is possibly getting better through this program and have someone that is willing to say, ‘we’ll be willing to get you the treatment.’ Often times, I feel like people are arguing whether it’s a disease or a choice, it doesn’t matter, people are dying.”