Upcoming Event
IRHA "Lunch & Learn"-Building Blocks of Harm Reduction: Community Based Sharps Disposal Kiosk
Presenters:
Presenter:
Antonia Sawyer, B.S., graduated with academic distinction from Indiana University in 2014, with a degree in the science of psychology. Since then, she has lead a successful career in community development. Utilizing her personal and professional experience, Antonia has assisted exceptional leaders in the development and/or implementation of both innovative and traditional programming within communities. Now a Strategic Leadership and Design graduate student at the University of Indianapolis, and director of the Hoosier Health and Wellness Alliance through the Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute at Indiana University School of Medicine, Antonia seeks to further improve the overall health of Hoosier families through collaboration of state and community coalitions focusing on the reduction of factors that contribute to the poor physical and mental health of residents state-wide.
Director of the Hoosier Health & Wellness Alliance
Indiana Clinical & Translational Sciences Institute
Deborah Nichols
Debi Wallick
Description:
As Indiana continues to experience an increased rate of Hepatitis C, communities access the state are seeking innovative ways to address their counties rising Hepatitis C rates, Improper syringe disposal, and stigma around the use/possession of a syringe. This session will examine the innovative way it was done within the rural community of Miami County, Indiana, as government leaders, community stakeholders, and residents came together to create a community-based sharps disposal kiosk initiative. Through the collaboration of city and county officials, social services agencies, and community members, the first kiosk was places, with the goal of seven total to be made accessible by 2021. The objectives for this project are to reduce needles pricks reported to OSHA by the local street department workforce, decrease the improper disposal of syringes in the community, increase access to proper disposal of syringes, and utilize it as a building block to further harm reduction initiatives in.
-Learn the current state of Hepatitis C across Indiana, the populations in rural areas affected by Hepatitis C, and the state of Hepatitis C in the rural community of Miami County, Indiana.
-Learn how the project was implemented and partners needed to make it successful/sustainable.
-Learn the tools needed to replicate the project in any rural community.