Empowering Health: A Community-Centric Protocol for Introducing Public Health Vending Machines in Rural North Carolina
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Date
2024-05-01
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Authors
Guter, Meghan Elizabeth
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Abstract
Drug related overdoses are affecting communities all over the country. In the past two decades, over 28,000 people have died from a drug overdose in North Carolina (NC). Research has shown that there has been an increase in overdose deaths throughout NC, particularly in rural areas. To help reduce overdose rates, health care interventions should be implemented. Accessibility of naloxone has become a factor in combating overdose rates. Naloxone is a medication designed to rapidly reverse an overdose. Public health vending machines (PHVMs) are a strategy to provide harm reduction supplies that have recently been implemented in some communities within the United States (US). Thus far, PHVMs have been installed in communities, detention centers, and police departments. The purpose of this study is to develop implementation strategies to employ PHVMs as a healthcare delivery option for harm reduction in five rural communities (Carteret, Jackson, Surry, Stanly, and Swain counties) in NC. This study utilized a community-based participatory approach in which we partnered with the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition and Community Impact North Carolina to engage with substance use prevention providers and community members in five rural counties in NC to improve naloxone access. We will collect qualitative interview data from people with lived experience to examine placement of PHVMs and items to be stocked in PHVMs. To do this we are hiring one local community member with lived experience from each county to recruit, conduct interviews, and collect data from other members of the community with lived experience of substance use. Surveyors will be trained to conduct interviews and collect data. Development of protocol for training surveyors includes an interview training presentation with an adapted collaborative institutional training initiative (CITI) portion. The findings will inform implementation of PHVMs to improve harm reduction access and assist in decreasing overdose deaths. This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of an award totaling $300,000 with no percentage financed with non-governmental sources. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government.