Posts Tagged ‘treatment’

Free Hepatitis C Testing Event: Monticello

Monday, April 18th, 2022

Free Hepatitis C Testing Event: Monticello

HVCS is providing free Hepatitis C testing and a bag lunch on 4 dates in May (which is Hepatitis Awareness Month). Testing and lunch incentives will be given at our SEP van (or in the Monticello office, on May 16th).

Here is the full schedule:

Thursday May 12, 2022 from 1:30 to 3:30 pm
Municipal Parking Lot @ Mill St.
between N. Hamilton and Catherine St., Poughkeepsie

Friday May 13, 2022 from 1:30 to 3:30 pm
Parking lot behind 280 Broadway, Newburgh

Monday, May 16, 2022 from 12:00 to 2:00 pm
20 Crystal St., Monticello

Tuesday, May 17, 2022 from 1:00 to 3:00 pm Elmendorf St. between Broadway and Tremper Ave., Kingston

Support provided by United Healthcare. For more information, call or text (845) 522-5767 or email us.

Free Hepatitis C Testing Event: Newburgh

Monday, April 18th, 2022

Free Hepatitis C Testing Event: Newburgh

HVCS is providing free Hepatitis C testing and a bag lunch on 4 dates in May (which is Hepatitis Awareness Month). Testing and lunch incentives will be given at our SEP van (or in the Monticello office, on May 16th).

Here is the full schedule:

Thursday May 12, 2022 from 1:30 to 3:30 pm
Municipal Parking Lot @ Mill St.
between N. Hamilton and Catherine St., Poughkeepsie

Friday May 13, 2022 from 1:30 to 3:30 pm
Parking lot behind 280 Broadway, Newburgh

Monday, May 16, 2022 from 12:00 to 2:00 pm
20 Crystal St., Monticello

Tuesday, May 17, 2022 from 1:00 to 3:00 pm Elmendorf St. between Broadway and Tremper Ave., Kingston

Support provided by United Healthcare. For more information, call or text (845) 522-5767 or email us.

Free Hepatitis C Testing Event: Poughkeepsie

Monday, April 18th, 2022

Free Hepatitis C Testing

HVCS is providing free Hepatitis C testing and a bag lunch on 4 dates in May (which is Hepatitis Awareness Month). Testing and lunch incentives will be given at our SEP van (or in the Monticello office, on May 16th).

Here is the full schedule:

Thursday May 12, 2022 from 1:30 to 3:30 pm
Municipal Parking Lot @ Mill St.
between N. Hamilton and Catherine St., Poughkeepsie

Friday May 13, 2022 from 1:30 to 3:30 pm
Parking lot behind 280 Broadway, Newburgh

Monday, May 16, 2022 from 12:00 to 2:00 pm
20 Crystal St., Monticello

Tuesday, May 17, 2022 from 1:00 to 3:00 pm Elmendorf St. between Broadway and Tremper Ave., Kingston

Support provided by United Healthcare. For more information, call or text (845) 522-5767 or email us.

HIV Treatment Cascade Stats Get Even Better

Friday, February 19th, 2021

HVCS has conducted its own analysis of the HIV
treatment cascade for a few years now. This is a
statistical look at the number of clients who are
HIV-positive, are connected to medical care (at all,
and how many have continuous care), and the
percentage who are virally suppressed. (This means
that their viral load, or measurement of how many
copies of HIV are in their blood, is so low that it cannot
be detected.) Among those who have medical care,
95% of HVCS’ clients are virally suppressed!

This figure for 2019 is even better than for previous
years, so we are doing better and better all the time.
Virally suppressed clients cannot transmit HIV to
others, so this is doubly good news.

HHS Removes X-waiver, Expanding Medication-assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder

Friday, January 15th, 2021

This opinion was published by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) on January 14, 2021. HVCS concurs and seconds this congratulatory statement.

 

Washington, D.C.—The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) applauds the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) decision to effectively remove the “X-waiver” requirement for physicians, expanding their ability to utilize medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for patients struggling with opioid use disorder (OUD).

“As emergency physicians, we see every day the devastating effects that the opioid crisis has had on the communities we serve—a crisis that has unfortunately only worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Mark Rosenberg, DO, MBA, FACEP, president of ACEP. “Buprenorphine is the most important medication in our arsenal for treating opioid use disorder, which is currently one of the most lethal diseases for Americans.”

In the decision announced on January 14, HHS issued an exemption to the X-waiver requirement for physicians registered with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) who wish to prescribe buprenorphine and other MAT. While the new guidelines pertain to physicians who treat no more than 30 patients with buprenorphine for opioid use disorder at any one time, ACEP appreciates that the Department recognized the unique nature of emergency medicine and decided not to apply this limitation to hospital-based physicians, including emergency physicians.

The X-waiver presents a major obstacle to “legitimate” patient access to buprenorphine and other MAT. Before today’s announcement, physicians wishing to prescribe buprenorphine outside of opioid treatment programs had to take an eight-hour course and often waited 60 to 90 days to receive the waiver once the course is completed and the license application is submitted. The presence of this X-waiver requirement has also led to misperception about MAT and has increased negative pre-conceived notions about OUD and the treatment of this disease. As a result, some clinicians are hesitant to pursue this DEA license or even engage in treatment of patients with OUD.

Removing the X-waiver and reducing stigma to treating OUD in the emergency department has been a major priority for ACEP. In January 2020, the College hosted the Summit Addressing the Opioid Stigma in the Emergency Department—an event funded by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration as part of its Opioid Response Network in which stakeholders identified strategies and behaviors to reduce practices that perpetuate stigma in the emergency department. ACEP also sent a letter to HHS to illustrate the challenges of the X-waiver and supported H.R. 2482, the “Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act of 2019,” which would eliminate the waiver requirement.

Added Dr. Rosenberg, “This is a great day for our patients. The X-waiver was an outdated and cumbersome barrier to treatment, and it exacerbated stigma for those struggling with opioid use disorder. Now, more than ever, we need compassion and action in treating patients with addiction.”

NYS Extends Open Enrollment To August 15, 2020

Friday, July 17th, 2020

The Governor announced on Wednesday, July 15, 2020 that the Special Enrollment Period (SEP) for uninsured New Yorkers will be extended through August 15, 2020.

You can read the full press release at the following link:

https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/part-new-yorks-ongoing-response-covid-19-pandemic-governor-cuomo-announces-special-health

The HIV Care Cascade

Monday, March 11th, 2019

The HIV Care Cascade intro graphicHave you heard of the HIV Care Cascade?

Essentially, the HIV Care Cascade is a way we can measure the effectiveness of HIV treatment among HIV-positive people. The Cascade uses viral suppression as a measurement–and viral suppression is the medical state in which the number of copies of HIV in a person’s blood is so small that it can’t be detected by the best tests we have. If someone is virally suppressed, they can’t infect anyone else with HIV, so it’s good for them and their sexual partners!

The Cascade is an analysis of the steps or stages of HIV medical care that people living with HIV go through from initial diagnosis to achieving viral suppression. The metrics were developed by New York State’s “End the Epidemic” (ETE) Task Force to track and report to the public the state’s progress on the initiative.

There are four key metrics in the Cascade, including: the number of individuals who are diagnosed with HIV; the number who have evidence of medical care during the year; the number who are retained in care (visiting a doctor more than once per year), and the number who are virally suppressed.

So, how are we doing? Since you can apply the HIV Care Cascade to different groups, let’s look at New York State as a whole and HVCS clients.

As for NY, numbers are improving…

7@% of HIV+ people in NYS are virally suppressedthe overall state average of viral suppression is 72% of HIV-positive clients who received at least one viral load test in 2017.

90% of HVCS clients who are HIV+ and in medical care are virally suppressed.
But HVCS clients are beating the average. We recently compiled our own HIV Cascade for the first time, using 2017 data from some (not all) of our programs. 90% of HVCS clients with evidence of some medical care (they received at least one viral load test in 2017) are virally suppressed!

We work as hard as we can to assist our clients with accessing and staying connected to medical care to keep them–and the whole Hudson Valley–as healthy as possible.

Too Tired For Treatment?

Friday, March 8th, 2019

Too tired for treatment...until HVCS helped out.Sandy*, one of our clients in the Mid-Hudson region, is like a lot of people in her thirties: she was working several jobs to make ends meet, had no time to eat properly or exercise, had a few minor health problems that she ignored. She was definitely not focused on her health. That is, until she became HIV-positive.

She didn’t want to see a doctor about it, and was not on HIV medications at all. Our Health Home care manager Maria knew that Sandy needed a lot of emotional support and encouragement to start HIV treatment—and she also knew that Sandy’s health was in great danger if she continued to ignore her HIV-positive status. “I don’t have time for that. I’m too tired,” Sandy would say. Maria was extremely patient with Sandy and, after months of building trust, she eventually got Sandy to see that her health mattered. Sandy finally went to see an HIV specialist and got on treatment.

Thanks to her doctor and Maria, Sandy is now virally suppressed—with no detectable HIV in her blood—and is now connected to a whole host of health resources. Maria reports that Sandy is doing very well.

*Not her real name

HVCS & St. Lukes Cornwall Hospital Connect Overdose Patients To Long-Term Aftercare Help

Friday, February 22nd, 2019

St. Lukes Cornwall Hospital in NewburghWhen someone comes to a standard emergency room because of an opioid overdose, the staff do everything they can to revive them–but what happens after that? At St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital (SLCH) in Newburgh, they provide overdose patients with a short-term prescription for buprenorphine, a pharmaceutical which prevents withdrawl symptoms without providing a high. This short course of buprenorphine is known as induction and it’s the first step in assisting the client to discontinue or markedly diminish their use of other opioids. SLCH can only offer the induction phase, not a longer-term prescription program, though.

That’s where our Health Hub comes in. We recently began a collaboration with SLCH in which we transition clients from the induction phase to long-term bupe use (known as a Medication Assisted Treatment Program or MAT).

Hospital staff and clients appreciate that HVCS’ services are low-threshold. Clients who come to the Health Hub are able to receive Buprenorphine treatment with out the fear of being discharged because they either relapse or are using another substance. We expect for this collaboration to be very successful and are looking forward to work closely with other hospitals as they begin to look at the same model as St Luke’s Cornwall Hospital.

Narcan-Resistant Fentanyl Making Its Way Closer to Hudson Valley

Tuesday, March 6th, 2018

This is a bit of old news, but it’s being circulated again in the substance abuse treatment field to make sure users are fully aware of the risks, and so that Narcan carriers know that they may be up against a powerful new drug.

According to Narconon Suncoast:

In Pittsburgh, PA a type of Narcan-resistant Fentanyl has been found in batches of heroin and it’s already causing numerous overdoses and deaths. Apparently, it’s hundreds of times more powerful than morphine and called Acryl-Fentanyl.”

“Acryl-Fentanyl is synthesized, which means it’s artificially created and has no natural origin (remember, heroin’s natural origin is a poppy plant). Not only is it manmade, but it’s being created in China, like most other research chemicals and synthetic drugs and being smuggled into the United States.

DEA Special Agent In-Charge, David Battiste said, “If Acryl-fentanyl is introduced into the population, it can have devastating effects. You would have to reuse Narcan if you are revived from Narcan at all.”

That’s right folks, this stuff is completely resistant to Narcan. Like Special Agent Battiste said, it’s unlikely that Narcan will reverse its effects and, if it does, it will take multiple, multiple doses. We’re already having enough of a problem with the strength of opiates these days. Narcan is struggling to keep up and continue to save the lives of those who overdose. Acryl-Fentanyl is going to make this problem a whole lot worse and this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the devastating effects this drug is going to have on our society.”

Read the full article here.