SmartTranscript of House Human Services - 2025-04-08 - 1:05 PM

[Chair Theresa Wood]: Okay. Oh, it's over on the right side now. I know. The little live red button moved. Wait. It's not in the same spot it normally is. So, welcome, Kelly. Nice to see you. [Kelly Dougherty]: Nice to see you too. Thank you. [Chair Theresa Wood]: So committee this afternoon, we are in our o and a, oversight and accountability section. We're gonna be taking up a update on syringe services, and this is in relationship to implementation of act twenty twenty it was bill two twenty two I think that's act twenty two of twenty twenty three. Thank goodness. It wasn't twenty twenty two. Right? So, we are happy to have, deputy commissioner Kelly Dougherty here. And, Kelly, you've been here before, so we don't need to do introductions. And members, we do have a copy of a PowerPoint that Kelly provided to us on our website. So the floor is yours, Kelly. Thank you for being here. [Kelly Dougherty]: Sure. And just for the record, Kelly Dougherty, deputy commissioner. And at first, especially since there are some new members on the committee, I thought I would just give a brief overview of what a CERN service program is and what services they provide just to kind of have a base level sort of understanding of what we're talking about. So organized community based needle exchange programs, also referred to as syringe services programs or SSPs as we like to call them. They're community based prevention programs that provide people who use drugs or have a substance use disorder with a range of services such as clean use supplies for, like, injection equipment, you know, syringes. They provide links to substance use treatment and other services, including medical services, and they help prevent the transmission of infectious disease. So they protect the public and first responders by providing safe disposal of the needles that individuals bring into them when they're getting new supplies. So there's been a lot of research on SSPs, and they've been around for, you know, over thirty years that they're safe and they're effective. They are cost saving. They don't increase illegal drug use, and they reduce the spread of viral hepatitis, HIV, and other blood borne infections. And the more syringes that are provided per the number of people who inject drugs, the more likely use used syringes would be disposed of safely. So the idea is folks come in. They can bring their used syringes. The SSP will dispose of those and provide them with clean syringes for their use. I do wanna say that at some point, it may have been in the early two thousands or maybe the sometime in the last many years, CDC dropped the requirement that it's like a one for one exchange so people don't have to sort of bring in two syringes in order to get two syringes. It was determined that that's a that would be a barrier for people who that it would discourage people from coming in. So but people who do bring their used syringes, SSPs are required to have a disposal program, you know, to have a way of disposing of those syringes, and that's part of the operating guidelines that the department has for syringe service programs. So those are in that requirement is in the grant agreement that we have with them. So, like I said, they refer to treatment, and they also provide information on, you know, how to recognize an overdose. They distribute naloxone and other supplies, you know, to help people who are using drugs. And, like I said, they provide connection to community services. So I'll pause there and see if anyone has any questions about that, and then I can move into updates since act twenty two. [Chair Theresa Wood]: Alright. Well, I'm not seeing any. The Okay. The two people who would most likely have questions are not in the room right now. So, thank you for that overview, and, hopefully, the representatives will review your testimony. Thank you. [Kelly Dougherty]: Mhmm. So since act twenty two was passed, this is not necessarily related to act twenty two, but it sort of happened around the same time. There are over eighty locations statewide that that have drug disposal kiosks, and some of those do accept sharps. Some don't. But the depart our website publishes available locations and the types of materials accepted so folks can, you know, dispose of needles in some of those locations. So the department, like I said before, does administer grants to SSPs. And the SSP, like I said, must meet the operating guidelines, so they must maintain a Sharps disposal collection plan. There was, per act twenty two, the Department of Health and the Blueprint facilitated regional stakeholder meetings regarding public needle and syringe disposal programs with the goal of determining appropriate placement of syringe disposal programs, and that was completed in January of twenty twenty four. And that report, I believe, was shared with you. If you don't have that, we can certainly send it along. Actually, I think it may have been shared with you from Natalie Weil, our policy adviser. In act twenty two, there was a hundred and fifty thousand dollars appropriated from the evidence based education and advertising fund to the department to provide grants and consultations to municipalities, hospitals, community health centers, etcetera on needle needle and syringe disposal program. Mhmm. So this was onetime funding. All one hundred and fifty thousand dollars is allocated to two organizations. And so the grants are for providing opportunities for these entities to develop syringe disposal programs in community settings. So, you know, additional disposal opportunities that could be, like, locked disposal boxes in public places like restrooms or parking garages, what have you. So we did this via an RFP, and two vendors applied and both were selected. And they are both in the southern part of the state, Windham County, and Bennington County. We did significant outreach through our listservs, through our prevention consultants that we have across the state, prevention organizations, our field service AHS field service directors, and our VDH district directors. And we just had two those two entities apply. We actually did targeted outreach to the city of Burlington, but they didn't submit a proposal. So it's AIDS Project of Southern Vermont and which is in Brattleboro, and I'm flanking right now on the Bennington entity, but I can let you know if you'd like to know that. [Chair Theresa Wood]: Thank you. Mhmm. [Kelly Dougherty]: So in addition to that, three hundred and fifty thousand dollars was allocated via act twenty two for grants from the opioid abatement special fund to fund syringe services programs to increase the geographic distribution of these services and to establish a new SSP. So, unfortunately, we did release the RFP. One entity responded, but that applicant did not the application scored less than fifty points on a hundred point scale, and it was not consistent with the operating guidelines for SSPs, which were provided to them. So we had to reissue the RFP, and that is I believe it's out right now. So those are the things that was that were in act twenty two regarding SSPs. I'm happy to pause and answer any questions. [Chair Theresa Wood]: Go ahead, representative McGuire. [Eric Maguire]: What are the requirements to be an SSP provider? [Kelly Dougherty]: So they actually were just updated. So you used to have to either be a designated HIV service organization or a health care provider, but that language was loosened last year. So now I I don't recall off the top of my head what it was changed to, but it did broaden it so that you didn't have to be either one of those things. [Chair Theresa Wood]: Mhmm. [Kelly Dougherty]: So as a result, we have a new SSP, Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform, that is operating in Burlington. They previously didn't meet the requirements, but now they do because of the loosening of the language. And I can certainly find that, in statute and send it to you. [Eric Maguire]: Perfect. Thank you. [Chair Theresa Wood]: Mhmm. Other questions? Go ahead, Representative Bishop. [Doug Bishop]: Yes. If if you can help me, I'm trying to keep track of the various numbers you shared with us. So how many SSPs are there? Is that the the how many SSPs are there? [Kelly Dougherty]: Yeah. So there are, I wanna say four organizations, and there are multiple locations, at least with one of them, but also mobile services that travel to places where there isn't a stand alone SSP. So, like, Vermont Cares has a mobile service that they take around to other communities where they don't have a fixed location. But I can send you a list of those SSPs and where they serve. [Doug Bishop]: That'd be [Chair Theresa Wood]: great. Kelly, one of the things I recall during our conversations on h two twenty two, which eventually became Act twenty two, was, because I think there was a proposal at one point in time to have the syringe boxes located at pharmacies or near pharmacies, and the pharmacies weren't particularly enthusiastic about that. And we ended up and maybe it was in a different bill, but I've we've done a number of opioid bills. So we I recall there being some money allocated to have conversations with communities themselves about where would be best locations, and there were some resources in there to do that, and about, like, where in communities there would these depository is best be located. [Kelly Dougherty]: I don't recall that there was funding allocated, but there was that report that I referred to [Chair Theresa Wood]: Yeah. [Kelly Dougherty]: Based on the stakeholder engagement across the state, and that does touch on where services are needed. So I would refer you to that. It's Okay. Comprehensive report. [Chair Theresa Wood]: Alrighty. I think I'll and you said that was submitted last January? [Kelly Dougherty]: It I think that, actually, Natalie, while our policy adviser, sent it again today. Okay. So [Chair Theresa Wood]: Okay. What I have that she sent was just your testimony. [Kelly Dougherty]: Oh, okay. I can Oh, [Chair Theresa Wood]: this is the report Yeah. [Kelly Dougherty]: This is what [Chair Theresa Wood]: I want. Sorry. Yep. That's okay. She did. Yep. Okay. Great. Six. Sounds like Yep. Six. I mean, this one. I just went past it. Nope. That's two. It's Alright. Thank you. [Kelly Dougherty]: Mhmm. [Chair Theresa Wood]: Here we go. Yeah. Everywhere. Yeah. Everywhere. Right. I know. Okay. Alright. Thank you. That's helpful. Other other questions on this? And I would encourage people to kinda take a look at this report because it might actually help inform further questions about this. One of the reasons that this came up other than, it was on it should have been on our tag list to follow-up with you on, is we had a representative who was interested in amending the opioid abatement settlement fund bill H218 to put language in that actually is already in two in Act twenty two or something comparable because a constituent of hers had been concerned about the needle needles in Burlington in particular, but, you know, we've certainly heard it from other communities Mhmm. Around the state. And to to what extent do you know to what extent that the syringe service providers typically receive needles from people who coming in seeking exchange? [Kelly Dougherty]: I don't, but I can see if we collect data from them on that. I I don't know off the top of my head. But I can see if that's a component of their reporting. I don't know if if it is or not. But like I said, they they do have you know, they all need to be able to receive and dispose of used needles. So it's not a requirement of them to go out and clean syringe clean up syringes found in communities. That's not a requirement for them, but they will accept ones that people bring into them for proper disposal. [Chair Theresa Wood]: Right. And it actually was helpful to, hear you comment on the fact that CDC does not require it, currently as a best practice in terms of this because of the likelihood that it would deter people from seeking out these services. So that's helpful information. Other questions for Kelly on this? Go ahead, Representative Bishop. [Doug Bishop]: Although tangential to the programs that we're talking about, it was just referenced, Burlington. And are you aware of Burlington or other communities having programs perhaps not connected with this that do seek to be out in the community collecting? Do you use needles that are discarded? [Kelly Dougherty]: There are various community disposal efforts going on, outside I'm not aware of anything in Burlington other than the service that they have where you can, what's it called? Like [Doug Bishop]: Click it. See click. [Kelly Dougherty]: Yeah. Yeah. [Doug Bishop]: Familiar familiar with [Kelly Dougherty]: that. So that's that's the only thing I'm aware of, but there could be things going on that don't involve the health department. And so I'm not really sure. But the other thing that was attached to the document that was sent to you is a toolkit, a syringe disposal toolkit for communities that was developed actually by our Berry District Office several years ago. And so they shared sort of their experience and put together a toolkit so that communities can use that as a resource to set up disposal programs. [Chair Theresa Wood]: Thank you. Any other questions for Kelly on this topic? Yes. I see Safe Sharp's disposal community toolkit. Okay. [Eric Maguire]: What page is Eric's got a bunch of [Chair Theresa Wood]: It it go ahead, Eric. It is what'd you say? Six six Sixteen seventeen. Right around sixteen seventeen. Dinesh, [Eric Maguire]: it seems like this program it it's a very, very effective program. Don't get me wrong. When but it seems like it's very underutilized. You had mentioned that there's only a couple of providers. Many of the main locations are in the southern part of the state. What what can we do to get this program more utilized? [Kelly Dougherty]: Right. Well, to clarify, the ones that I mentioned that are in the southern part of the state are is specific to a disposal program, not an SSP. So we were appropriated a hundred and fifty thousand dollars through act twenty two to issue grants for communities to establish safe needle disposal programs. We only heard from those two programs down in the southern part of the state, but SSPs generally are I can't say that they're statewide. They're not in every community, but I am gonna send a list of the organizations and locations. And like I said, Vermont Cares does operate a mobile SSP to try to reach some of the communities that don't have a fixed location. [Eric Maguire]: Yeah. So I guess my follow-up would be, what is it that we can do with maybe as legislators or things within the agency to maximize? And and if it's a barrier thing, if it's maybe dropping some of the requirements to where this is really maximized throughout all our communities. We just heard from representative in Burlington recognizing, hey. You know, some of these things are often here. We do have, you know, several of them down around here in the Rutland area. Mhmm. But, yeah, again, I I see this program as significantly underutilized, and we know how effective it is in reducing the, you know, the stigmas and the other things surrounding drug use. [Chair Theresa Wood]: Mhmm. Any other questions or comments for deputy commissioner? I have one. Is there an acting commissioner been appointed, Kelly? [Kelly Dougherty]: Yes. Julie Aurel is the other deputy commissioner at the department, and she is serving as interim. [Chair Theresa Wood]: Interim. Okay. Thank you. Mhmm. And it's not related to this, but the other bill that we have you coming in on, I guess we're going to wait and have all the AHS folks come in together or not. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. Okay. You're gonna come in tomorrow. Okay. I was As you can I was just gonna say, as you can imagine, section four of that bill has caused quite a lot of communication with our committee now, and everybody and their brother wants to testify about it? And so we are and, of course, people have differences of opinion about, whether we should or, you know, should not repeal that section of statute. So and I was just trying to figure out it's just helpful to know. But was that something that the health department requested be added? [Kelly Dougherty]: I think that I don't think so, but this I think I mentioned before, this Sunrise provision has been [Chair Theresa Wood]: It right. It's been there for road [Kelly Dougherty]: for many, many years. And so how what's happened is it just keeps the date keeps getting pushed out. And the reason for that is because there really is no good alternative to using DOC, because there is no other there are no other secure locations that we could that somebody could go to. So, eventually, after being delayed, delayed, delayed, like, the date being pushed out multiple, multiple times, it feels like repealing it is the right thing to do. [Chair Theresa Wood]: Yeah. I'm just trying to figure out who's asked for that repeal. And it it seems difficult to figure out, right, at this particular moment because it wasn't in the bill as introduced, and they didn't take any testimony on it downstairs. So I agree. Mystery to solve. Well, it it's a mystery that we'll solve eventually, I'm sure. So we'll talk more about that tomorrow. Okay. But we did hear some interesting testimony from Northeast Kingdom, human services. We're gonna be hearing from Lamoille County. And I suspect this is something where we're not gonna have a universal consensus would be my guess. So we'll do our best to, you know, figure out what's the best that we can do at this point in time. So Okay. Okay. Thank you for being here this afternoon. Appreciate it. You're welcome. Alrighty. Take care. [Kelly Dougherty]: Bye bye. Okay. [Chair Theresa Wood]: Committee, at two, we have, h ninety two, and we are gonna be hearing this that's on the human services, board care hearing proceedings. And And we are gonna be hearing from the we heard from legal aid and the, housing side of things last week. And different new different types of, hearings, are handled by the disability law project. And so I wanted them to be able to present their thoughts about how they have interacted with the human services board on that. And then earlier today, or maybe it was last night, I forwarded to you the h two ninety three. That's an act relating to health equity data reporting and disclosure requirements. That's just an FYI. We will we will be loading on that tomorrow at nine. So I just wanted to give you a heads up on that. Okay? Alright. You've

Play Clip Play Full Video Pause

SmartTranscript of House Human Services - 2025-04-08 - 1:05 PM

This is useful for seeing what happened at the meeting without wading through the whole transcript: