Jackson County gives away health items in new vending machine. More are planned
Jackson County Public Health is rolling out a series of vending machines that will contain free health items, like fentanyl test strips, first aid kits, condoms, hand sanitizer, and Naloxone, the life-saving drug that can reverse an opioid overdose.
The first kiosk, called a Bluebox, has been installed in the parking garage next to Lee’s Summit City Hall at 220 SE Green St., and is available 24 hours a day. Five more locations are in the works throughout the county, and those kiosks are expected to be installed by the end of the year, said Seth Middleton, Jackson County Public Health’s senior program manager of substance use prevention.
“We do this because we know that these are things that people need to keep themselves healthy and keep themselves safe, and we need more opportunities in our community for people to be able to do that with a lower barrier to access,” Middleton said. “That’s why we made it free, and that’s why we put it out in public.”
Other available items include COVID-19 and flu test kits, period products, hygiene kits, wound care kits, sunscreen and socks.
The Lee’s Summit kiosk is initially being funded by a grant from the Greater Lee’s Summit Healthcare Foundation and will continue to be funded through money Jackson County is receiving through a lawsuit settlement with opioid distributors. Middleton said Jackson County Public Health also has state and federal funding that will sustain the supplies inside the kiosk.
The new program expands on an existing effort that Jackson County’s public health authority has in place, which offers free Narcan and fentanyl test strips in newspaper box-like bins in a handful of locations in the county. Seven of those boxes are currently in place, and eight more are expected to be installed by the end of the year, Middleton said.
“If you’ve got someone who’s living unhoused, and something they need to keep themselves more healthy is access to some clean, good socks that can help prevent foot infections, that can help prevent some really grave, long-term illnesses, then that’s a really basic thing that we can supply,” Middleton said.
“That’s why we positioned ourselves, kind of as the supplier of those things, as the public health agency. Same thing goes for condoms, if we can prevent the spread of (sexually transmitted infections), that’s an awesome way to get ahead of some of those public health issues.”
