Benjamin Zack, Standard-Examiner file photo
OGDEN – During the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Needle Exchange Program was forced to slow down, but it’s back up and running in a more convenient location.
“Throughout the five years it’s been running in Ogden, we’ve had numerous issues with location and reaching people,” said Mindy Vincent a licensed clinical social worker and executive director and founder of the Utah Harm Reduction Coalition. “We have always partnered with Weber Human Services but now we’re going to have it at Weber Human Services.”
Vincent said the new location will allow participants to have better access to resources — including substance abuse help, medication assisted therapy and testing for both HIV and Hepatitis C.
The Needle Exchange Program provides sterile needles to drug users in exchange for their dirty needle. The program also offers education on overdose awareness and prevention and referrals for drug treatment programs. Participants also have access to Naloxone, a drug used to reverse overdoses.
“The program has been running in the United States since the 1970s and it really picked up during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s as a way to help curb the spread,” she said. “The thought behind it is — you give me a used needle and I give you a clean one and maybe we can mitigate or eliminate the spread of disease.”
Vincent said numerous risk factors for addiction are evaluated, and users are taught alternative coping skills and encouraged to seek out treatment. Participants are also followed throughout their lives to help them stay on course.
“We’re here to try to help people and that’s the thing people miss. They just say we’re enabling drug use. I don’t have the power to make a person stop, but I can help them realize there are a lot of ways out there to make positive changes in their lives.”
According to the Utah Department of Health, from July 2021 to September 2021, there were 360,692 used needles turned in to the seven syringe service providers across the state and 432,402 clean needles distributed. Nearly 60% of the needles exchanged were among males with about 40% to females. The most widely used drugs during that time period were methamphetamine and heroin. That’s still the case in the Ogden area, Vincent said.
“Three years ago, Ogden was third highest in the state for drug overdoses. Heroin and meth are still the two most predominant drugs,” she said. “We are here to help people even in their darkest hour. If I can’t help you at the darkest moment in your life, then I don’t know what I went to school for.”
The exchange program runs every Tuesday from 1-5 p.m. at Weber Human Services, 237 26th Street. You can also call 385-323-2217 or go to utahharmreduction.org for more information.
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