Former abortion clinic pleads with residents to maintain ‘open mind’ about syringe service program

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia’s former abortion supplier is pleading with capital-area residents to maintain “an open mind and an open heart” a few proposal so as to add a syringe service program to its choices within the opioid-ravaged state.

“This work is too important and too vital to be guided by fear or disdain or past grudges,” Iris Sidikman, the hurt discount coordinator on the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia, mentioned at a public listening to Thursday on Charleston’s west aspect.

Syringe service applications function by permitting individuals to trade soiled syringes used to inject medicine for clear, sterile ones. They are CDC-recommended and scientifically confirmed strategies to curb the unfold of ailments like HIV and hepatitis C amongst intravenous drug customers and usually supply a variety of providers, together with referrals to counseling and substance use dysfunction remedy.

The Women’s Health Center of West Virginia says the transfer is a part of an effort to broaden providers for marginalized communities now {that a} near-total ban on abortion is in impact within the state. The well being heart is situated on Charleston’s west aspect, an space that has traditionally seen the town’s highest proportion of emergency overdose calls.

The Charleston City Council is anticipated to take this system up for a vote subsequent month.

In 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared Charleston the scene of the nation’s “most concerning HIV outbreak” attributable to IV drug use.

That got here after the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department shut down its syringe service program in 2018.

Such applications exist in dozens of states, however they aren’t with out their critics, together with these in West Virginia, who say they don’t do sufficient to stop or cease drug use and create extra issues, like syringe litter.

In 2021, West Virginia Republican Gov. Jim Justice signed a regulation requiring syringe suppliers to be licensed with the state and recipients to indicate proof of residency and convey again every needle after use.

The Charleston City Council adopted with an ordinance requiring that applications accumulate no less than 90% of the syringes they distribute and making it a misdemeanor legal offense to run an trade program violating the restrictions, including fines of $500 to $1,000 per offense.

The ordinance additionally requires {that a} public assembly be held in any space the place a company is proposing so as to add syringe providers.

During Thursday’s assembly, west aspect resident Bobbi Holland mentioned syringe service applications “only enables drug users and normalize their behavior.”

“What they are doing is illegal,” Holland mentioned. “They should be treated as criminals, not victims. I feel this will decrease our property values.”

Sidikman emphasised factors on syringe service applications taken instantly from the CDC’s web site: the applications cut back charges of HIV, hepatitis C and deadly overdoses, in addition to charges of syringe litter. People who use syringe service applications are 5 occasions extra more likely to pursue remedy, in keeping with the CDC.

City of Charleston Quick Response Team Coordinator Danni Dineen, a recovering heroin consumer, mentioned a syringe service program “personally saved my life.”

“I want to see the folks that I serve here in Charleston have that same opportunity. I want them to have a safe place to go without judgment,” Dineen mentioned. “I want them to have access to sterile supplies, so they don’t contract hepatitis C like I did.”

As of 2022, one group in Charleston – West Virginia Health Right – presently operates a syringe service program. Others, together with one run by the nonprofit Solutions Oriented Addiction Response, shut down after elevated restrictions have been carried out by the town and state.

In addition to the syringe providers, the Women’s Health Center hurt discount program would come with naloxone and overdose response coaching, HIV and hepatitis C testing and remedy and referrals to major care, behavioral well being and substance use dysfunction remedy.

The clinic already has a syringe disposal field on its property and plans to implement a month-to-month trash pickup to seek for any discarded syringes within the neighborhood.