This year, I am working with the Allen County Health Department. I am working with Gilead (the manufacturer of Harvoni and Sovaldi) towards improving the resources and access to Hepatitis C medications for underserved populations. Over the past several years, cases of Hepatitis C have soared in this area, likely due to the increase of drug use. Many patients are without insurance and have no means of paying for the $18,0000 monthly medication. As of right now, these patients are seen at health department and are told to see their health care provider to manage their medications. If they do not have a health care provider, their cases can be managed by the staff doctor at the health department. The problem, however, is with the patients who do not have insurance. Giliead already has patient assistance programs in place but they are very hard for patients to become a part of. My proposal is to develop some sort of packet with information on Hepatits C and an information sheet of all the information that is needed to sign up the patients for the program. Once a month, patients would then be able to bring all required information to the health department and we would work with them to get them signed up for the program so that they can get their medications and their disease state cared for.
The other project is in a stand still at this moment until we get the first in line. We are working towards getting Naloxone to patients who have people in their life that they are worried about. Perhaps due to addiction or constant opioid use. Ideally, we would like to have a class for people to attend so that they can learn more about addictions and what options they have, such as rehabilitation programs. The problem with this project is many people may think the health department is just handing out naloxone and are sort've saying "its ok to use drugs" and promoting this behavior. The argument of course, is that these individuals are effecting lives of many people and a second chance at life might be what they need. Initially, we thought we could target these patients via clean needle swaps but the health department is not going to be directly dealing with those patients. This project is to be continued!
-Shealy
The other project is in a stand still at this moment until we get the first in line. We are working towards getting Naloxone to patients who have people in their life that they are worried about. Perhaps due to addiction or constant opioid use. Ideally, we would like to have a class for people to attend so that they can learn more about addictions and what options they have, such as rehabilitation programs. The problem with this project is many people may think the health department is just handing out naloxone and are sort've saying "its ok to use drugs" and promoting this behavior. The argument of course, is that these individuals are effecting lives of many people and a second chance at life might be what they need. Initially, we thought we could target these patients via clean needle swaps but the health department is not going to be directly dealing with those patients. This project is to be continued!
-Shealy