Living in Transition Effectively Executive Director Tammy Cotton speaks at the Health First Kosciusko Advisory Committee meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 23, in the Kosciusko County Courthouse’s Old Courtroom. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — The Health First Kosciusko Advisory Committee heard several initial proposals regarding providing harm reduction and sexually transmitted infection testing in the county at its meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 23.

One of the presenters was Living In Transition Effectively Executive Director Tammy Cotton. She talked about providing bags with “self-care” items in them.

Those would consist of items like a toothbrush and toothpaste, condoms, saline vials, bandages and antiseptic cream.

“We don’t do anything with needles or anything like that,” Cotton noted.

“We started handing (the items) out (as an organization). We’ve been very successful with that. We’re wanting to do that more,” she said, adding that the group also gave out Narcan and information on community resources.

Cotton said she hoped the committee and county would approve giving LITE money for the bags as it would “really expand the harm reduction initiative.”

Committee Chair Dr. Dennis Woodward asked Cotton if LITE had statistics on if the bags were helping people.

She noted the organization itself didn’t have specific numbers, but she believed giving out Narcan was preventing overdose deaths.

“We’ve only had seven overdose deaths this year (in Kosciusko County), and it’s been in the 20s the few years prior,” said Cotton, citing numbers from the county.

Cotton is part of a group which works to prevent suicides and overdoses in the county. She noted at the group’s meeting earlier on Wednesday a police officer noted the overdose deaths were down due to the distribution of Narcan.

The HFK committee made no decisions yet on distributing funds to LITE.

Northern Indiana Maternal and Child Health Network Executive Director Heidi Pollard and Director of Disease Intervention Programs Julian Schock also presented before the committee regarding STI testing.

Pollard noted NIMCHN already has a clinic in Kosciusko County, Warsaw Family Health Center.

“We’ve been here since 2010,” she said. “Actually since 2010 as well, we have taken over the disease intervention program for District 2, which Kosciusko is one of the 10 counties that we serve.”

Pollard said the health organization is told of every HIV, gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis case in the 10 counties “and we follow up and make sure that the patients have been treated appropriately.”

She said NIMCHN talks with the patient’s doctors regarding guidelines and makes sure the patient’s sexual partners are tested as well.

Pollard said NIMCHN screens at events with either blood tests or urine or vaginal swab samples depending on the STI being tested. For the latter two, a person will use a restroom to get the sample and return it to NIMCHN staff.

Pollard noted the organization does advocate for abstinence as a preventive measure but also uses measures like condoms.

The committee initially considered the NIMCHN proposal, but made no final decision on the organization providing STI testing on behalf of the Kosciusko County Health Department.

In other business, the committee:

• Recommended giving $4,860 to One Eighty Digital for Kosciusko County Health Department marketing and $40,000 each to Lutheran Kosciusko and Parkview Kosciusko hospitals for a number of prenatal care vouchers for women. The Kosciusko County Commissioners will have to ultimately approve those distributions. Only women getting emergency Medicaid services qualify for the vouchers currently, but the committee talked about expanding the vouchers to other women in need in the future.
• Heard from HFK Coordinator Kurt Carlson that a Warsaw Community Schools bus meant for a mobile health clinic for the county won’t work out due to the effort needed to convert it, but that leaders are looking at getting a better-suited vehicle currently in Ohio.
• Agreed to schedule its next and last meeting for the year at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 4, due to working around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.