Health Committee Discusses Public Health Vending Machines for Overdose Prevention - August 26, 2026
Health Committee Discusses Public Health Vending Machines for Overdose Prevention - August 26, 2026
The Westchester County Board of Legislators Health Committee, chaired by Legislator Jewel Williams Johnson, met on August 26, 2026, from 11:08 AM to 12:15 PM to discuss the feasibility of implementing public health vending machines that dispense free supplies such as naloxone and test strips to combat opioid overdoses. The committee heard from Adrienne Abbate, Executive Director of Staten Island Partnership for Community Wellness, who presented her organization's experience launching two such machines in Staten Island in June 2026. Westchester County officials from the Departments of Health, Community Mental Health, and Emergency Services also participated.
Presentation by Adrienne Abbate (Staten Island Partnership for Community Wellness)
- Abbate described the public health vending machine initiative supported by New York City opioid settlement funds. Machines are accessible 24/7, transactions are anonymous (only zip code required), and they dispense naloxone, fentanyl and xylazine test strips, wound care kits, safer sex supplies, hygiene products, Plan B, and seasonal items. Two machines are located at provider sites: one co-located with a food pantry and another in a more desolate area. Since launch at the end of June 2026, there have been 1,600 transactions across both sites.
- The initiative involved a multi-year process: guerrilla postering in 2023, advocacy in 2024, and installation in 2026. Challenges included zoning laws, landlord resistance, and community concerns about vandalism and safety. Costs were approximately $11,000 per machine plus similar installation costs. Ongoing costs include labor and purchasing supplies not provided free (e.g., feminine hygiene, Plan B). Naloxone and test strips are currently free from the state. No syringes or smoking kits are included due to controversy.
- Community buy-in was achieved through town halls, presentations, and an FAQ mythbuster. None of the anticipated concerns (vandalism, crime) had materialized.
Discussion Items
- Legislators and county staff discussed optimal locations in Westchester. Emergency Services representatives noted difficulty obtaining accurate overdose data due to underreporting and multiple agencies (40 police departments, 50+ fire departments, 45 EMS agencies, 13 hospitals). They suggested querying local EMS and law enforcement for high-volume areas.
- Dr. Sherlita Amler, Commissioner of Health, highlighted Westchester's Narcan training program initiated in 2014, which has trained thousands. She noted that overdose deaths are decreasing, likely due to widespread naloxone availability, but data on usage is sparse.
- Patrick Quinn (Health Department) reported exploring a free vending machine option from "Matters" since early 2026, which provides machines, narcan, and test strips at no cost with a grant for installation. A pilot project in White Plains (85 Court Street) was considered but not yet implemented.
- The committee discussed co-locating machines with wraparound services and including additional public health items (wound care, hygiene kits), but noted that county funding would be needed for non-free supplies.
- Community buy-in was emphasized as critical. Abbate shared that despite outreach, some sites (parks, libraries, landlords) rejected machines. Westchester officials noted libraries might accept lockboxes with naloxone as an alternative.
Key Outcomes
- No formal vote was taken. The committee will continue exploring the vending machine concept, considering both the free Matters vendor and direct purchase using opioid settlement funds.
- Next steps include: (1) Meeting with the Westchester Library System to discuss possible locations or lockbox placements; (2) Attending a meeting of emergency services personnel to gather input on high-need areas; (3) Following up with Abbate for a connection to New York City health department officials; (4) Considering adding wound care kits to existing lockboxes in shelters.
- The meeting was adjourned at 12:15 PM.
Meeting Transcript
This meeting is being recorded and summarized. Good afternoon good morning, everyone. Pushing the day along. I'm our legislator Jewel Williams Johnson, Chair of the Board of Legislative Committee on Health. Today is August 26th, and we are commencing this meeting at 11.08 a.m. Um today's meeting uh topic is something that uh we have spoken about before early on on my start on the board. We spoke about um uh implementing vending machines for uh public safety item, particularly Narcan. And uh I read a couple of um recent articles that highlighted a program in Staten Island where Ms. Adrian Abate um uh uh hails from and uh we're so happy to have her join us today to speak about how they implemented it there and then in fact I believe it was from your uh weekly email list of of news items that I read and um there's also a program um in Connecticut we tried to uh get them to join us today too. But um really wanted to uh um approach this again and see learn how it was implemented in other places and see where we can um possibly implement it here uh in Westchester County. So um before I um quiet and give Adrian the floor on to ask everyone at the table to introduce yourselves and then we'll have everyone who is virtual do the same. And we'll start with our um phenomenal commissioner of the Department of Health, Dr. Amler. Good morning. I'm Dr. Shirleada Amler, and as legislative we've said, I have the honor of being Commissioner Health for Westchester Catholic. Good morning, I'm Patrick Quinn. I also work with the uh Department of Health, Division of Health Promotion. I'm Joseph Blazer, I'm Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Community Mental Health. Thank you. Uh and Adrian, we'll start with you. Hi, hello, I'm sorry I can't be there. Um I'm Adrian Abadi, I'm the executive director of partnerships for community wellness. Thank you. And Deputy Chief Sally. You muted. You're muted uh Deputy Commissioner Sally. Hi, uh not Deputy Commissioner, that's my boss. I'm sorry, my Deputy Chief. That's okay. Um, so my name is Niall Sally, uh, Department of Emergency Services, EMS division, and I oversee the public access defibrillation program for Westchester County. So that's probably why I am on this uh meeting. Thank you. And Mr. Roberts. Good morning, everybody. My name is Brett Roberts. I'm with the County Department of Emergency Services, EMS division, and here for the same reason that thank you. Thank you. And Mr. Volk. Hi, good morning, Mike Volk, uh Deputy Commissioner for the Department of Emergency Services. We're here to help you guys. Yes, I love it. EMS is well represented. Um and I'll just indicate that we're also uh all joined on the screen with um our other uh committee coordinator, Diana Gomez, and our director of legislation, James Silverberg. Thank you to everyone for joining us today. Um again, I'm going to turn the floor over to Adrian so we can learn from their program. And uh really happy to have such a strong EMS presence because we do want to speak about you know if if this comes to fruition in the county, you know what areas have the um what areas in our county, what locations would be idea that are seeing the most um uh occurrences. So Adrian, again, thank you so much for joining us.
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