Harrison County Moving Forward on Needle Exchange Program

CLARKSBURG — Harrison County's Partners of Prevention, Intervention, Treatment and Recovery (PITAR) arrangements to push ahead with a damage decrease/syringe trade program in the wake of finding out about the achievement of a comparative system at Milan Puskar Health Right in Morgantown amid a meeting Thursday.

The Health Right center initially began arranging a syringe trade program in June 2013, when 34 patients tried positive for hepatitis C, Executive Director Laura Jones said.

In Harrison County this year, the Harrison-Clarksburg Health Department has done 118 hepatitis C case examinations, as per Margaret Howe-White, the division's nursing chief.

The quantity of hepatitis B, HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia cases has expanded in Harrison County too, Howe-White said.

"The relationship is by all accounts to medication use," she said. "When you have medication use, you have misguided thinking or absence of judgment, and that prompts different things."

On the other hand, such increments aren't restricted to Harrison County. West Virginia and Kentucky have the most noteworthy rates of hepatitis C in the nation, Jones included.

"Encompassing us are expresses that all have syringe trades, and they have significantly lower rates of hep C," she said.

Since Milan Puskar Health Right started its syringe trade program a month ago, the facility has seen 22 unduplicated patients, Jones said.

"We have a three-pronged methodology," she said. "We have a social laborer, an enrolled attendant and a restorative colleague who really work the trade part, and we have a medical attendant professional that is accessible to converse with anybody."

While the syringe trade is a critical piece of the project, the most indispensable part is the damage diminishment, Jones said.

"We have alluded individuals to advising, and we have alluded individuals for testing," she said.

In one case, a patient who had stopped utilizing medications and was feeling debilitated called the center for assist, Jones with saiding.

"We had the capacity talk her through that procedure and assist her with making sense of approaches to oversee in the event that she needed to proceed with that procedure," Jones said. "That is never happened at Health Right, and it would have never happened had we not met her through our trade."

Growing such a compatibility with patients is a discriminating part to an effective project, Jones said.

"You need to inspire clients to converse with you about what they're utilizing, how they're utilizing it and what they require," she said. "On the off chance that you need to get the chance to individuals and converse with them about trust and recuperation, you need to get them in a non-judgmental environment and listen to what they're stating."

Jim Harris, official chief of Health Access, thinks offering those assets through mischief lessening projects is required in Harrison County.

"The general population who are in this condition frequently have no trust, and they don't see any exit plan," Harris said. "They don't see any way out system at all."

Jones confessed to being wary when first becoming aware of syringe trade programs, at first scrutinizing the thought of empowering intravenous medication utilization.

Howe-White noticed that "the information shows there is no expanded utilization in compulsion or individuals looking to end up dependent on account of a needle trade program."

Jones included that there are regularly confusions about those in the group who need help.

"The general population we've seen so far have been grandmas, working individuals, understudies, a spouse and wife bringing up youngsters," Jones said. "We've seen low-pay, center wage and high-pay people inside of those 22 individuals."

West Virginia University understudies make up an expansive number of the individuals who get through the Milan Puskar Health Right facility, Jones said.

"We have 30,000 understudies in Morgantown, and there's no doubt understudies are exploring different avenues regarding medication use, so this is a super imperative thing for an immense school town to have," she said. "I believe it's an imperative thing for any group to have."

While Health Right's system has been fruitful up to this point, a damage lessening project in Harrison County would should be diverse and one of a kind.

"We need this to be limited in light of the fact that every group needs something else," Jones said.

Such a system would not dispose of medication utilization in Harrison County, but rather it would help take out the general wellbeing dangers connected with intravenous medication use, authorities said.

"Syringe trade and damage lessening is one minor bit of a colossal issue including compulsion in our nation," Jones said. "There are financial issues. There are joblessness issues. There are vagrancy issues."

Jones prescribed PITAR meet with the area's partners, chose authorities and law implementation in regards to a mischief diminishment program before pushing ahead.

"Verify you get the greater part of your partners in agreement," she said.

The Harrison County Prevention Program will include a potential damage lessening project to the plan of its Oct. 2 meeting with expectations of getting backing from zone partners and advancin