Oftentimes in some of Philadelphia’s roughest neighborhoods Prevention Point Philadelphia is working to change the lives of drug users and how people view drug users.
Prevention Point Philadelphia (PPP) is a public health organization based in North Philadelphia that offers a variety of services. The organization is most known for their controversial syringe exchange program (SEP).
The SEP’s goal is to eliminate the transmission of HIV, Hepatitis C, and other blood born diseases through intravenous or IV drug use in which users inject substance directly into their vein. The users are referred to as “participants” by the organization who allows them to exchange used syringes for clean ones at several different locations around the city. In addition to the syringe exchange program PPP offers HIV and Hepatitis C testing.
“We have a good staff who cares,” said the programs Executive Director Jose Benitez. He went on to explain that Prevention Point Philly offers a non-judgmental approach. “It has to be a relationship based on trust.” He said, “We never preach to the participants, and any decision they make has to be their own”
The organization was founded in 1991. At that time PPP only existed as an underground grassroots outgrowth of Philadelphia’s AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power or ACT UP. At that time the possession of syringes was illegal in the city of Philadelphia. In 1992 as a result of lobbying by PPP Former Mayor Ed Rendell issued Executive Order 4-92 overriding the possession laws that were keeping prevention point underground.
Today PPP receives funding from the Philadelphia Division of Behavioral Health’s Office of Addiction Services and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health’s AID Activities Coordinating Office.
The organization’s main headquarters is located on the 100 block of Lehigh Avenue. The neighborhood is in one of North Philadelphia’s more impoverished areas with a crime rate that includes burglary, theft, and assault. Some of those have been committed on the same block as PPP’s headquarters according to spotcrime.com.
The Street Side Health Project is a program set up by PPP to bring important medical services to the streets of Philadelphia. Prevention Point has also established five clinics around the city where residents can receive care on their own accord.
In addition PPP offers a computer lab and frequent job preparation classes among a variety of other counseling and medical services.
Prevention Point Philly declares themselves as a “harm reduction” service. They are one of two places in all of Pennsylvania that trains people how to use the drug naloxone. When a IV drug user overdoses they can be saved with a small injection of naloxone that slows the users heart rate down and most likely saves their life. PPP employees and volunteers have frequently been featured in The Philadelphia Inquirer for saving peoples lives with this drug injection.
Part 2 Coming Soon
No comments:
Post a Comment