Julie Interview
High-Level Findings
We would have to identify alternative funding for a device like Dove
Less than half of the 30-100 people seen each week might make good candidates for Dove
Other organizations focused on wealthy recreational drug users might be a good market
Prevention Point Pittsburgh
Prevention Point Pittsburgh is an organization that mostly focuses on providing naloxone and need exchange. PPPGH has 17 full time employees and sees 30 to 100 people each week. Out of those 30 to 100 people, Julie sees a device like Dove working for less than 50 percent, partially due to the lack of reliable access to a smart phone. She sited that one individual went through 14 phones in one year from bartering/selling/having the phone stolen.
Need exchanges seem to be the bulk of the work they do, last year they exchanged over 2 million syringes, and are the local affiliate for Next Distro.
- Julie’s Background
Julie focuses her time on the overdose program which mostly refers out to external services for case workers, mental health, and housing. Her supervisor is Alice.
- Funding
PPPGH can’t use state or federal dollars for the needle exchange so relies on funds from non-profits, government grants, and other non-specific non-government grants. Julie mentioned that it’s actually easier to get funding for needles in states that don’t provide funding. Pennsylvania provides funding for free naloxone, so it seems that these types of states are less likely to fund harm-prevention measures. The funding they receive from Health Departments can only be used for staffing and other non-supplies needs.
Julie mentioned that it would be possible to get funding for a device like Dove, but probably not the normal funding channels they use for other supplies. She mentioned that we should focus on Vital Strategies or other public health family foundations for funding.
Other Organizations When asking about innovation in the opioid space, Julie could only think of a new application of Naloxone that administered 3mg instead of 4mg. She did speak about Dance Safe, and a personal friend of hers, Emmanuel was the founder, but has now left the organization. Dance Safe focuses on test strips for parties and has an audience who all make “six figures” so they can afford to pay for all the necessary equipment to stay safe while using. She admits that this would be a small market. She also mentioned Bunk Polic and KMFK as organizations in a similar vein that would be good candidates to contact.
Follow Up We should follow up with Julie to get contacts for the organizations listed above. She also mentioned a rally for the legalization of syringe exchanges taking place in Harrisburg next month, as well as a local art show in May. In addition, she mentioned a paper referred to as “Drug Users Give a Fuck” from 2017 but it’s hard to identify this paper without a proper name or author.