Cempa Community Care steps up with STEP TN
Cempa Community Care (formerly known as Chattanooga Cares) has been aiding our community for thirty-two years with constant outreach and education. Chattanooga is fortunate to have an organization dedicated to the education, prevention, and support services for those impacted by HIV when so few people fully understand the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of the disease.
“In the past, our main focus has been HIV,” says Cory Howard, Director of Development and Communications for Cempa Community Care. “We have a clinic that sees 750 HIV-positive patients, but we’ve expanded our mission to include Hepatitis C, and we treat mono-infected Hep C because it’s been such a rising issue in the community.”
Those interested can take advantage of Cempa’s rapid HIV and Hep C testing. It only takes twenty minutes to get results, and patients can be referred for in-house treatment immediately.
“With HIV nowadays, a lot of people don’t understand you don’t die from HIV as long as you take your meds,” says Howard.
Currently, STIs are on the rise. Individuals, especially those in the younger population, are partaking in unprotected sex, having little education on the repercussions. For this reason, Cempa also offers testing for chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis.
In recent months Cempa has taken caring a step further by introducing STEP TN, a syringe services program. Through the program injection drug users (IDUs) are offered access to clean needles in exchange for old needles, as well as rehabilitative and treatment information. Programs such as these have been proven successful in reducing the spread of disease.
“The syringe exchange or STEP TN comes into place because people who are injecting drugs and sharing needles are at higher risk for Hepatitis C and HIV,” says Howard. “So, if we can offer them free, clean needles to use they’re less likely to share and spread Hep C and HIV.”
According to the CDC, 40 percent of new IDUs will share needles their first time using. With current rates continuing, 1 in 23 women who inject drugs and 1 in 36 men who inject drugs, will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime.
The process of getting clean needles isn’t difficult, even for a first-time IDUs. Participants aren’t required to bring anything with them, but the program strives to be a one-for-one exchange, meaning IDUs bring in dirty needles [in a puncture-proof container like a laundry detergent bottle] and they will be provided with clean needles.
The one-for-one idea is beneficial in more ways than just preventing users from sharing dirty needles. It assists with getting needles off the street, out of park trash cans, as well as preventing police officers from being stuck with dirty needles by up to 33 percent.
Along with their testing and multitude of other services, Cempa also offers Naloxone training to first-time participants in the STEP TN program. Naloxone is a nasal spray that reverses an overdose by blocking opioid receptors in the brain and is a lifesaver in a moment of need for countless IDUs.
Participants of STEP TN will anonymously fill out paperwork and receive an ID card that allows them to carry dirty needles from Point A to Cempa during business hours without penalty from the police. However, this card only gives permission to carry the needles themselves to the clinic and does not protect patients from the law if they’re found carrying drugs of any kind or carrying needles outside of the clinic’s business hours.
Ashley Ewald, Cempa Community Care's Harm Reduction Coordinator, works directly with patients daily and says it’s incredibly fulfilling and strange all at once.“I have the strangest job ever. I don’t know any of my clients’ names, but I know their whole life story,” says Ewald. “I love my clients, hearing where they come from, how they got here.”
The main goal of the STEP TN program is to of course try to end the spread of disease between IDUs, but Ewald says it’s also about decreasing the stigma surrounding addiction and seeking treatment.
“My patients can be honest with me because there’s no reason to lie,” says Ewald. “They need someone to support them in their journey, and we can. We want to. We want to help people.”
Even if you don’t use injection drugs, educate yourself on the current rise of HIV, Hep C, and needle-sharing across the country by calling Cempa Community Care or by visiting steptn.org for more information. Turning a blind eye is making the stigma stronger when what we need is to be open to discussing such stigmas and working towards accepting, and ultimately, healing.