A vending machine that dispenses harm reduction supplies has been installed in North Adams, Massachusetts. Berkshire Health Systems, the county’s largest healthcare provider, announced Tuesday that the machine is officially up and running at the Berkshire Harm Reduction office at 6 West Main Street. Clients who have been furnished with a code will be able to access clean syringes, alcohol wipes, fentanyl test strips, Narcan, and other materials aimed at preventing the spread of disease and reducing the chance of overdose deaths 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The machine – which comes from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health – also provides emergency contraception, pregnancy tests, and other sexual wellness products. Berkshire Harm Reduction program manager Sarah DeJesus tells WAMC that the device is the first of its kind in Massachusetts.
DEJESUS: Harm reduction is a program working primarily with people with active substance use disorder, and our goal really is to keep people safe and keep people alive while they're using substances. And so, we provide sterile supplies for people who are injecting drugs, smoking drugs, with an overarching goal to prevent things like HIV and hepatitis C. We also do a lot of overdose prevention education, so teaching people – not only people who use our program, but the community in general – how to recognize and respond to an opioid overdose and how to administer Narcan. And then we also provide testing for HIV, hepatitis C, and other sexually transmitted infections, and then treatment for any of those that come back positive. And then we also have a correctional linkage to care component of our program where we work with people recently released from the house of correction to make sure that they're connected to care and support services post release.
WAMC: Now, you've opened up a vending machine in North Adams, Massachusetts. Tell us, what is this machine? What is it dispensing? And what are you hoping it'll do for your broader efforts in the region?
So, the machine has a variety of supplies that people could come in and get from our program during normal hours of operation. So, that includes things like new syringes, sharps containers, Narcan, fentanyl test strips, a variety of supplies including safer sex supplies like condoms. And the goal, really, with that machine is to have 24/7, access available for services, so the machine is accessible when the office is closed, which would be evenings or weekend hours.
Now, is there any precedent for this kind of technology being employed for this larger harm reduction strategy?
It's very, very new. I know some other states have started piloting some programs, but it's new for us here in the Berkshires and Massachusetts.
How are you going to judge the effectiveness of this new program and this new strategy? What metrics are you going to be looking at?
Yeah, so there's a data collection component to the machine. So, anybody who wants to utilize the machine has to first meet with a harm reduction staff member to get registered for the machine. So, we have a risk reduction conversation and talk about availability of supplies in the machine, and then we'll be able to tell how many people are using the machine, at what times they're using the machine, and what particular supplies they're accessing from the machine. So that will give us a better idea of where to move forward in the future, as far as what we're offering to people to support them.
So why North Adams? Why is that the location that's being chosen to try out this new technology in the Commonwealth?
So, North Adams was actually the first place in the Berkshires to approve comprehensive harm reduction services. So, North Adams in general has been very accepting of kind of thinking outside of the box for healthcare for people, and that just ended up being also the first place that was, everything kind of lined up to have the machine in place for the same services.
Tell us about the machine itself. Who's providing it? What kind of technology is this? What's it going to look like to people on the street in North Adams?
So, the funding for the machine comes from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The machine looks like what you would think of as a traditional vending machine that you would get like chips or candy or soda from. It has a small keypad where people create a code when they meet with the harm reduction staff so that they can access the machine, and it's outside of our North Adams location at 6 West Main Street.
What was it like working with the city on this?
It was great, really. We met with [Mayor Jennifer Macksey] to get support for the machine, we talked with community members and participants who use the program to just figure out what would work best in that particular community, because each community within the Berkshires that we work with has a little bit different needs, and so we wanted to really just support North Adams the best that we could.
What is next for this program? With this now opening up in North Adams, are there other locations in the Berkshires that might also get access to this vending machine?
That's the hope. We do have a couple more vending machines that we would love to deploy throughout the Berkshires in order to provide that 24/7 access to people who need supplies for harm reduction.
Is there anything about this new endeavor that I've not thought to ask you that you want to make sure folks in Northern Berkshire County understand?
It's important to know that it's not a replacement of services. It's an addition to our current services that we're offering. So, it's really an extension of what we're being able, what we're providing for people currently.
