Community Advisory Board Formation and Vending Machine Pilot: Eastern Kentucky

Title: CARE2HOPE Community Advisory Board on Substance Use and Harm Reduction Innovation Abstract To ensure that programs, interventions, policies, and research meet the needs of people who use drugs (PWUD), PWUD must be meaningfully involved in development, design, and dissemination; provide a forum for PWUD to consider ethical, equitable, and logistical issues associated with such efforts; and obtain feedback from PWUD on state and federal policies related to drug use, criminal justice, treatment, and recovery supports. PWUD input is especially critical in the design of harm reduction interventions. In rural Kentucky, harm reduction services remain under-utilized and vending machine models of harm reduction supply delivery may hold promise in improving reach. The goals of this project are to (1) expand and sustain an Advisory Board comprised of people who use drugs in Appalachian Kentucky to inform overdose and SUD intervention and program planning, research, and service delivery, and (2) with the Board’s input and in collaboration with vending machine engineers, develop a harm reduction vending machine that can be operated in communities that require 1:1 syringe exchange.