The Monroe County Health Department plans to request continuing its needle exchange program for the next two years, according to health department administrator Penny Caudill.
Under a new Indiana law, counties and municipalities can now operate needle exchange programs, also called syringe exchange programs, without first obtaining permission from the state health department.
In 2015, when the Monroe County commissioners first declared a public health emergency in the county because of rising rates of hepatitis C infections caused by injection drug use, the Indiana State Department of Health also had to sign off before the county could implement a syringe exchange program.
Now, the county commissioners could vote by the end of this year to approve continuing the syringe exchange program that has been in place since Valentine’s Day 2016 for two more years.
“I certainly see no reason we won’t ask for a two-year extension,” Caudill said Thursday.
As President Donald Trump declared the opioid epidemic a nationwide public health emergency Thursday afternoon, Bloomington and Monroe County officials continue to expand their work to address the county public health emergency declared two years earlier.
Trump’s declaration did not include a monetary commitment. Instead, White House officials said the declaration, which lasts for 90 days and can be renewed, will allow Congress to use existing funds to expand access to health care in rural areas through telemedicine and provide more substance abuse treatment.
“His plans to increase telemedicine in rural areas is desperately needed, and I sincerely hope that Indiana receives that assistance, because we have a crisis in our shortage of available doctors in our rural areas and our cities,” Commissioner Amanda Barge said in an email Thursday. “Whether Indiana and other states benefit remains to be seen over the next 90 days.”
“This is not something that’s getting solved in 90 days,” Caudill said of the opioid epidemic.