Page 178 - South Mississippi Living - July, 2015

THEFINALSAY SAM
BURKE
Executive Director,
St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy
photo by Teddy Lewis
How many of you reading this magazine take medicine of some kind every day? What would your day be like if you didn’t have access to your medicine? I’m guessing it wouldn’t take long for your blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, mental state, or other medical condition to get out of whack. It is my hope that most people won’t ever be faced with the choice of buying groceries or buying medication. Sadly, there is an ever growing population of individuals in our community who are faced with this choice each and every day.
Fortunately, the St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy’s mission is to provide prescription medication and wellness education to those in need. For the past 17 years, the SVdP Pharmacy has been using an innovative approach to fill a tremendous gap in healthcare by providing life-saving medications to those who cannot afford them. Our primary location is in Biloxi, but we operate extension sites in Moss Point, Bay St. Louis, and Hattiesburg.
Our Pharmacy is licensed by the Mississippi State
Board of Pharmacy and is manned almost exclusively by volunteers. Our volunteer pharmacists, with the help of nearly 80 volunteers, dispense non-controlled prescription medications to individuals who have been determined eligible for the program based on their need. We are a pharmacy of last resort, so eligible clients have exhausted all other resources before being accepted into the program.
We have volunteers who work with clients to secure medications that are provided directly from pharmaceutical companies. These programs allow eligible clients to receive name brand medications for free or at reduced cost. We also partner with other agencies that provide resources to our
clients, including Medicare Services, Homeless Outreach Programs and other ongoing healthcare needs.
In 2014, our Pharmacy filled nearly 21,000 prescriptions, and we will likely top 25,000 in 2015. That is nearly double the number of prescriptions that were filled in 2010. We are glad to be able to meet the rising need for our services, but it comes at a cost. When our Pharmacy first opened
its doors in 1998, the medications dispensed were largely made up of free samples from physicians’ offices. That trend is almost completely reversed now. We now have to buy 80 percent of the medications we distribute.
There are a number of ways you, the readers, can support our program. First and foremost, you can invest in our mission with a tax deductible contribution to help us purchase medicine. Second, you can volunteer your time as a client screener, pharmacy technician, or data entry technician.
Finally, if you or someone you may know is in need of help, please get in touch with us. For more information about client eligibility, volunteer opportunities, and donations, please visit our website at www.svdprx.org or call 228.374.9097.
178 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • July 2015
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