Work within pharmacies

We all remember the recent times when it was common to enter the apartment-house and see the syringe left on the floor with needles and the remains of blood on it. No one cared about it, while the used syringe – is a reminder about the thread of diseases that are transmitted through the blood. When the association with drug users come about – some people feel disgust, some people – contempt, but just for a few people addiction is associated with a disease, while in the reality it is a disease.

The aim of the work with pharmacies is to involve drug users applying to the pharmacy to participate in the programs of HIV/AIDS prevention.

Usually the persons starts from using “good”, even expensive drugs. But quite soon one slides down and discovers that there he has no money for the drug. Then he starts destroying his health and life by substituting the drug by some type of a medical drug (since it either made from the drug-like substance ). So the person comes to the pharmacy to buy one of the medications widely spread in the modern pharmacology market.  Some of the medications like that you can purchase without a subscription. If for usually it needs 1-2 pills to cure the disease, than for the narcotic effect the drug has to be turned into the liquid form and injected into the blood stream.

Drug use is a horrible problem of the person himself. Off his family and the society as a whole. Only meeting the problem  face to face people start searching for the ways to solve it.

Since 2004 OCF “The Way Home” with the support of the ICF “Society Health Alliance” is promoting various programs aiming to change the risky behavior of the drug users towards less dangerous. A significant role in implementing the HIV prevention programs plays the increasing the number of the service points.

How the project if operating?
Many of the addicts never participate in any of the prevention programs, moreover they have never heard of them. So it s much easier to find such a client in a pharmacy where he comes to “heal” himself with a “drug”. Also many participants of the program prefer to come to the pharmacy for the free instruments, since they sometimes have to work 12-124 hours a day. So the pharmacy project is aimed to include the addicted consumers to the into the prophylactic and prevention programs and to provide the participants the Risk Decreasing program the free sterile syringes.
We are working with the pharmacies close to the locations of the risk groups and also the ones close to the large crossroads, so that we could cover the biggest population if clients.
The services are provided within Odessa pharmacies of the “Denis Pharma” net.

The addresses of the pharmacies:
Davis Oystarch (Zatonski) st., 1.
Marselskaya st., 24
Komitetskaya st., 4/6
Armeyskaya st., 9
Akademika Zabolotnogo st., 2
Dnepropetrovskaya doroga st., 96

The tasks of the project:

• To provide the client with the information on the topic (pamphlets, booklets, newspaper “Don’t fly away”).
• To provide the members of the risk groups syringes, alcohol pads, condoms, lubricants, or to exchange the used syringes to the new ones. All the program pharmacies are equipped with the plastic containers and boxes – to store used syringes and other wasted used equipment (the agreement on the utilization is signed with the project “The way to the health of the nation”).
• The participants of the project can receive the free consultancy of the pharmacist, social worker, narcologist, psychologist and a lawyer.
• Members of the groups of risk are forwarded or supported by the social workers to take part in HIV, STD, virus hepatitis type B and C testing.

Cooperation with the pharmacies has allowed us to spread our services to the wider circles of clients – people occupied by the services in pharmacies were not covered by the other branches of our activities. Mostly the clients of the pharmacies and the users of the stimulators. The addiction is influencing the emotional, physical and psychological state of the person, his relations with a family gets destroyed, the person separates and distances from the official rules and laws of the society. The pharmacist is a person at the service of the healthcare, and the drug user for him is a person who is ill and needs assistance, understanding and support. The pharmacists of the “Denis Pharma” net are he highly qualified specialists  who are informed and learned about the specialties of the drug addictions and who are willing to contribute into the HIV/AIDS prevention program.