February 2019 - Parks & Recreation - 55

Syringe Disposal and
Working with Vulnerable
Communities
DOHMH researchers spent six
months conducting field observations and interviews with people
who use drugs in parks, assessing
factors regarding park utilization
and drug use, along with service
needs and barriers. They also met
with community stakeholders, service providers and area residents,
and distributed more than 250 naloxone (overdose reversal) kits. This
work would inform the task force's
efforts to develop and focus outreach capacity. Respondents also indicated high levels of support for syringe collection kiosks, which were
central to reducing syringe litter.
The New York Harm Reduction
Educators (NYHRE), a harm reduction organization, proposed an
innovative solution to both address
syringe litter and provide outreach
to those using drugs in the parks.
NYC Parks would purchase, install
and maintain 47 kiosks in 16 parks
throughout the South Bronx, while
NYHRE staff would empty the kiosks and assist with picking up syringes at the parks where the boxes
were located. NYHRE would also
distribute personal sharps containers
and naloxone, promote safe disposal
and provide a variety of services, including treatment and housing referrals, HIV/HCV testing, basic medical care, overdose reversal, Medicaid
application assistance and referrals
to local drop-in centers where these
and other services are always accessible. " Syringe disposal kiosks are
simply one tiny practical step in a
different direction toward building
a comprehensive solution grounded in reality, " explains Liz Evans,
NYHRE's executive director.
Kiosk locations were determined
by long-term, persistent syringe lit-

Custom syringe disposal kiosks, with
messaging, are checked and emptied on
a weekly basis.

ter - the 16 sites represented more
than 99 percent of syringes discarded in Bronx parks - but also by direct engagement with the drug-using
population. In addition to interviews
conducted by DOHMH, NYHRE
surveyed program participants about
where they were injecting and seeing
the most syringes. Outreach teams
also canvassed surrounding neighborhoods to assess syringe litter, so kiosks might improve these conditions
for area residents. Highly unstable
behavior patterns also had to be factored into the process, influenced by
a range of factors, including weather,
geography, proximity to services and
the frequency of NYPD patrols.
Concurrent with the rollout of
the kiosks and additional outreach,
Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP)
officers partnered with NYPD to
increase patrols at all playgrounds
where kiosks were installed, and
within larger parks receiving kiosks.
Both agencies agreed that patrolling
all the area's parks at all times was
impossible and would only displace
those using drugs to other parks and
public facilities. However, the playgrounds would be patrolled as frequently as possible while children
were present, notably before and
after school and during recess. NYC
Parks issued naloxone to all PEP
officers and education-focused Urban Park Rangers and trained them
in overdose reversal. After two lives
were saved in the parks, Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver made
the practice standard procedure
citywide for these employees.

A Work in Progress
Just as there are no easy or immediate solutions to the opioid epi-

demic, the issues of public drug
use and discarded syringes will not
be solved overnight. However, over
the first six months of the program,
encouraging signs of progress were
visible. While slightly more than
10 percent of syringes collected in
the parks were deposited in kiosks,
this represents a staggering 7,314
syringes to which both members
of the public and NYC Parks staff
were not exposed. Some kiosks
were used 100 percent of the time,
while others remained empty, even

Just as there are no easy or
immediate solutions to the opioid
epidemic, the issues of public
drug use and discarded syringes
will not be solved overnight.

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February 2019 - Parks & Recreation

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