Bridge to services: drug injectors' awareness and utilization of drug user treatment and social service referrals, medical care, and HIV testing provided by needle exchange programs.
Using qualitative interviews conducted in 1999, we examine awareness and use of drug user treatment and social service referrals, medical care, and HIV testing provided by needle exchange programs (NEPs) among injectors who use NEPs (N=26) and injectors who get their syringes from other sources (N=20). A four-category typology of NEP service knowledge and use emerges from these interviews: "Active involvement--use of services; "Stepping stone"--no use of services but knowledge that specific services are available; "Vague awareness"--nonspecific knowledge of service availability: and "Unaware:--no awareness of the service provision function of NEPs. We describe patterns of distribution of respondents among these categories and suggest policy implications.
Porter
Judith
J
Department of Sociology, Bryn Mawr College, PA 19010, USA. jporter@brynmawr.edu
Metzger
David
D
Scotti
Roseanne
R
D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness; D003153:Community Health Services; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018671:Needle-Exchange Programs; D015143:Philadelphia; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016320:Substance Abuse Treatment Centers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015819:Substance Abuse, Intravenous / Q000628:therapy*