Between 2022 and 2024, 416 human lives were lost in Stark County due to a preventable cause. Four hundred and nineteen fathers, brothers, sisters, mothers and friends.

As of Sept. 15, 44 lives were taken by this just this year.

The culprit? It has nothing to do with vaccination against disease, locking your doors at night or eating healthy. The secret murderer lurking within our own county is drug overdose.

Fortunately, one program saw the human lives being lost behind the statistics and decided to meet them at their level to save lives.

Stark Wide Approach to Prevention (SWAP) is a grant-run program through Canton City Public Health. Although SWAP is run by Canton City Public Health, there is no residency requirement to receive their services. Part of what makes them unique is that they have the only syringe exchange program in Stark County.

According to the Center for Disease Control, syringe exchange programs have proven time after time to save lives by discarding used syringes that could contain communicable disease pathogens, and by providing those who inject drugs with sterile injection supplies from a trusted source.

Individuals bring in their used syringes to SWAP, discard them safely in biohazard sharps bins, and SWAP will match the number of syringes the individual brought in with sterilized ones, as well as other supplies such as tourniquets and alcohol pads.

SWAP also offers safe smoking kits in an attempt to encourage individuals to switch from injecting their drugs to smoking them, as this lowers the possibility of transmitting bloodborne pathogens such as HIV or Hepatitis B/C.

On SWAP’s team of employees and volunteers is a certified nurse practitioner who specializes in treating injection-related wounds, teaching individuals how to care for their wounds, and prescribing antibiotics to treat or prevent infection.

SWAP also has a nurse once a month to administer vaccines for numerous preventable diseases. If an individual is concerned that they may have contracted a disease such as HIV, HepC, or syphilis, SWAP provides rapid testing from a finger prick that takes between 60 seconds to 20 minutes to receive results.

If someone tests positive for one of these diseases, they will be connected with a disease intervention specialist from the health department who will link that person to care.

Another resource that SWAP participants have access to is safe sex kits, which are offered by Canton City Public Health at all times, not just when the SWAP program is running. Those who inject drugs are at a higher risk for diseases that can be spread through unprotected sex, so this is another crucial resource to have accessible.

Sixty-two percent of Stark County overdose deaths in 2022 involved opioids such as fentanyl, which is a large part of the reason why SWAP has fentanyl test strips on hand.

“People can test their drugs to make sure if fentanyl is present they know that maybe they should use less,” SWAP Harm Reduction Manager Kristina Gantz said. “It just allows them to make more educated decisions about their drug use.”

Arguably one of the most important physical resources one can receive from SWAP is Narcan. Narcan (generically naloxone) is a lifesaving medication that is used to reverse opioid overdoses.

Narcan is not just something that those who use drugs should have on hand. Having Narcan on you, in your car, or in your bag could potentially allow you to save a life one day. It is one of those things that you never think you need until you do.

One of SWAP’s newer implementations has been making Friday a ‘community partnership day.’ On Fridays, social service agencies will come in and ‘table’ to offer their services and resources.

Some of the agencies that come in offer things such as medical care, housing, food, legal aid and even insurance education.

“I think a lot of our people are like, ‘I have a care source, I don’t need it,’ but they [those who provide insurance education] are able to say, ‘Do you use all the benefits that you have on that care source?’” Gantz said. “All the different benefits that the insurance companies offer, they are able to explain.”

One of the core values of SWAP is confidentiality, and that is something that is taken extremely seriously by their employees, volunteers and partners.

“It takes a certain kind of individual to be okay with the environment because of the population we work with, because there is such a stigma attached to it,” Gantz said.

All of SWAP’s participants are completely anonymous, none of the volunteers know their names or where they are from. Instead, they are identified through a special client code that they receive when they register for the first time.

“We probably see approximately 100 people in a two-hour time frame,” Gantz said. “All ages, we have from 18 years old to..I am gonna say 80 something.”

The community of people that use drugs in Stark County is very tightly knit. The majority of the individuals who are participants heard of the program through word of mouth.

“We do not do radio ads, we do not post billboards up, it is just word of mouth…they all know each other, I feel like,” Gantz said.

Another part of what makes SWAP so popular is that they do not push treatment on any of their individuals, no matter what they have witnessed or what they know about their drug use habits.

“We have the resources here for when they are ready…we accept them where they are at,” Gantz said. “We show them respect and kindness and they show us the same. We treat them human, that is it.”

Opponents of the SWAP program argue that it enables addiction, but Gantz sees her goal as not to stop addiction, but to save a life.

“You can’t help a dead person,” Gantz said. “We are here to keep them alive until they are ready [to get clean.]”

Many of those who volunteer or work at the SWAP program have a personal motive that keeps them going through such an emotionally draining environment.

“I would want a place for my loved ones to be able to go and be treated like a human being,” Gantz said.

Many people in the world have a connection with someone who is struggling with substance abuse, whether they know it or not, and one of the main reasons why people do not seek help is because of the stigma that is attached.

“A lot of times we find out too late that someone was struggling,” Gantz said.

The SWAP program runs Mondays 1 p.m.-4 p.m., Tuesdays 9 a.m.-12 p.m., 1 p.m.-4 p.m.

and every Friday 2 p.m.-4 p.m.. Please call 330-438-4674 with any questions.