The Clark County Health Department has stopped giving out certain publicly funded harm reduction supplies as part of its syringe services program, to comply with a recent federal executive order. Clark County is awaiting clarification on what the order means for their funding.
The local health department is still providing privately funded supplies and officials hope the program can weather other potential funding or legislative challenges.
The Clark County Health Department opened its syringe services program in 2017. That came nearly two years after Scott County opened the first in the state in response to a historic HIV outbreak that garnered national attention.
The program provides clean, unused syringes in exchange for used ones. It also offers other supplies for safer and more sanitary intravenous drug use, such as cookers, sterile water, cotton and tourniquets.
Dorothy Waterhouse, who leads HIV and syringe services at the Clark County Health Department, said making these supplies available is important to help prevent communicable diseases, like Hepatitis C and HIV.
“There could be contaminants…or blood…on any of these products,” she said. “We want everyone to have clean materials.”
The program also helps connect people to other services like recovery options, HIV and Hepatitis C testing, housing and employment.
But some governmental support for the program could change.
On July 24, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that largely addresses homelessness and aims to prevent funding for harm reduction efforts “that only facilitate illegal drug use” from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA.
On July 29, SAMHSA declared federal funding cannot be used for supplies including sterile water, saline or “any other supplies to promote or facilitate drug use…”
Soon after, the IDOH told the Clark County Health Department they believed the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which helps fund harm reduction efforts in the state, would follow suit.
The IDOH informed Clark County it had to immediately stop providing certain supplies, such as tourniquets and cookers, for safer use.
The Clark County Health Department uses private funds to purchase needles and some of the related harm reduction supplies they’re still providing. Health officials say patients and community members turn in more used syringes than the program gives out.
The health department stopped giving out the government-funded supplies earlier this month. Clark County Health Officer Dr. Eric Yazel said they still support their syringe services program, but have to comply with the law and the executive order.
But because they’re still able to provide the privately funded supplies, Waterhouse, the department’s program director, said clients are still getting supplies.
She also said harm reduction is about a lot more than syringes.
“[People] come in and we listen to what they need. It's just not that they just need the needle — they need support, they need mental health, they need other medical services [and] we're going to listen to what they need…on a one-on-one basis,” she said.
Information provided by the Clark County Health Department shows that between July 1, 2024 and July 31, 2025, there were 433 active participants in the program, accounting for more than 1,500 visits during that time period.
Hundreds of those visits included referrals for substance use treatment or HIV testing.
The numbers show almost all visits included harm reduction education.
Waterhouse said she used around $4,800 in IDOH grant funding to buy supplies — such as cookers and sterile water — from last June through this May that they had to stop distributing earlier this month.
But they can still use IDOH-funded things like testing and sharps containers, to safely dispose of used syringes.
She said the Clark County Health Department has $12,000 in private funding this year, which will go toward syringes and some associated sterile supplies. She can also use it for deodorant, bottled water and other items.
Waterhouse said the department can probably get through the end of the year with this funding, unless something else changes.
She hopes private donations can make up for any lost federal funds in the future, too.
Yazel, the health officer, agrees.
“It just makes me worried about sustainability,” he said, referring to the recent changes. He added that if the program grows beyond what they can cover with private funds, they may have to adjust how much they can distribute.
Yazel said he’s also concerned the Trump administration’s order could be a sign of more changes at the state or federal level. He worries health officials and others who operate syringe service programs could face challenges in getting Indiana leaders to renew the statewide authorization next June.
He said Clark County’s program is working.
“It's really helped a very vulnerable population,” Yazel said. “I don't think there's another kind of place that will offer those services to this population.”
Yazel said that if the program is forced to end, patients may not get follow-up care and public health issues could proliferate.
Coverage of Southern Indiana is funded, in part, by Samtec Inc., the Hazel & Walter T. Bales Foundation, and the Caesars Foundation of Floyd County.
