1. Client-Provided Public Health Services: Satellite Needle Distribution.
- Author
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Kelley, Margaret S., Murphy, Sheigla, and Lune, Howard
- Subjects
PUBLIC health ,NEEDLE exchange programs ,DRUG abuse ,PEOPLE with drug addiction - Abstract
We describe the ways in which participants at San Francisco's needle exchange program (NEP) extended the net of service provision through collective, or secondary, exchange. We report findings from our National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded three year process evaluation of the needle exchange program, completed in September of 1995. We interviewed a total of 244 study participants recruited from eight needle exchange sessions. Fifty percent of all "primary exchangers" exchanged for one or more injecting drug user(s) (IDUs). We identified three general routes of needle distribution between primary and secondary exchangers: between close friends and lovers; for people who lived in close proximity to them (e.g., neighbors in residence hotels); and with customers who bought drugs from them. We demonstrate these client-provided exchanges enable the NEP to overcome injection drug users' obstacles to program attendance, thereby reaching even hard to access members of IDU populations. Our analysis of secondary exchanges revealed barriers to the use of needle exchange programs, demonstrates participant innovations to overcome those barriers, and suggests program improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2003
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