Access, Harm Reduction, Overdose Prevention and Education, commonly referred to as AHOPE Boston or AHOPE Needle Exchange, and formerly called Addicts Health Opportunity Prevention Education, is a
needle exchange run by the Boston Public Health Commission
. AHOPE primarily serves homeless people with physical and mental health conditions.
History AHOPE's programming initially operated out of an outreach van that distributed sterile syringes to people who use drugs around
Boston. It was launched in 1994. In 2013, the program opened a location in the
South End and saw a 300% increase in people accessing services. In 2018, according to
Boston 25 News, AHOPE "distributed about 18,100
Narcan kits, receiving more than 23,000 reports of
overdose reversals as a result." In 2020, despite the risks of
transmission at the start of the
COVID-19 pandemic, AHOPE continued to provide services to drug users, out of fear that stopping them would cause a major outbreak of HIV. In 2022, according to
WGBH, AHOPE "collected nearly three times the amount of syringes" that it distributed over a period of eight months. The program offers informational handouts,
support groups, HIV testing, and individual counseling. It uses high tech drug testing services to identify the presence of
xylazine,
fentanyl, and other substances in
street drugs. Every
Thanksgiving, AHOPE hosts a dinner "for individuals struggling with
homelessness and
addiction" around
Mass and Cass. AHOPE's offices are decorated with the
obituaries of people who died as a result of
drug overdose.
Collaborations AHOPE works closely with the Boston Public Health Commission program, Providing Access to Addictions Treatment, Hope and Support (PAATHS), to help people with
substance use disorders access
treatment. Access, Harm Reduction, Overdose Prevention and Education assisted
Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program (BHCHP) in their creation of a
medical observation and stabilization space for intoxicated patients. Outreach workers from AHOPE work with doctors from BHCHP on the outreach Care Zone van, funded by the Kraft Center for Community Health at
Massachusetts General Hospital, to provide patients with food,
wound care,
physical examinations, and
opioid agonist therapy. The Care Zone van works in areas of Boston that report the highest amount of overdose.
EurekAlert! wrote, "By the end of 2019, the program's 24-foot mobile medical unit had recorded 9,098 contacts with people living with addiction in areas identified as overdose hot spots in and around Boston, distributing 96,600 syringes and 2,956 naloxone kits to rapidly reverse opioid overdose."
Honors In 2018, the
Boston Municipal Research Bureau honored Leroy Ivey, AHOPE's outreach coordinator, with a Henry L. Shattuck Public Service Award because Ivey "led the way in helping Boston confront the unprecedented opioid epidemic presenting itself locally." == Further reading ==