For this episode, we were fortunate enough to have Liz Johnson as our expert, who is dual credentialed as a Certified Medical Assistant and Certified Health Unit Coordinator. She holds a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Healthcare Leadership and Administration from Winona State University and currently teaches health science courses at a local community college, in addition to her work in harm reduction. Liz spent two years working in county government providing MNsure case management and supporting the Public Health Emergency Preparedness team on COVID-19 response until November of 2020, when Liz joined the Rural AIDS Action Network (RAAN). RAAN is a community-based non-profit serving Greater Minnesota with HIV case management and support services as well as harm reduction programs. Her role as Harm Reduction Coordinator provides oversight and coordination of RAAN’s harm reduction and prevention programs, including several syringe service programs. Liz is passionate about providing education and reducing harms caused by stigma, misinformation, and inequities in communities across Minnesota.

In our interview, Liz helped explained what SEPs are, and that they are an evidenced based, public health strategy to help reduce risk. The programs not only prevent the spread of infection, but also help drug users with education to mitigate risk and help link people to services. She shares that these programs can help with food insecurity, housing, and medical services including help with accessing healthcare coverage. She spoke to the arguments that they enable drug use or increase drug use, but they have been proven not to do this. Liz explained that there are many benefits for a community to have a syringe exchange program such as keeping syringes off the streets and out of parks, as they accept used syringes back, to dispose of them properly. Liz goes into detail regarding how stigma affects her clients, the programs themselves, and funding.  The general theme of this interview was hope for the future, regarding these programs.

References: 

Ungar, L. (2020, February 16). 5 Years After Indiana’s Historic HIV Outbreak, Many Rural Places Remain At Risk. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/02/16/801720966/5-years-after-indianas-historic-hiv-outbreak-many-rural-places-remain-at-risk

Vearrier, L. (2019). The value of harm reduction for injection drug use: A clinical and public health ethics analysis. Disease-a-Month, 65(5), 119–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.disamonth.2018.12.002