PATHS PARTICIPANTS
QUOTES FROM INTERVIEWS WITH PEOPLE WHO RECEIVED PATHS.
“[Peers] are very motivational. They’ve been through a lot of things I have, so they understand. They’re very encouraging. Just having some people in there who’ve been through it, to talk to and stuff.”
“Because I was pretty scared at first. That went right away. Right away, right when I met [peer], she made me feel right comfortable, at home. She looked me in the eyes, and she goes, ‘It’s going to be okay.’ … She pretty much walked me through it, and when I found out my results, I wasn’t scared.”
“[Peer] would always find me one way or another. If she couldn’t reach me by phone, she would come to my mom and dad’s house. No matter what it took for her to track me down, she always did. She didn’t just stop at one spot because she wasn’t able to get ahold of me. She never gave up.”
“If I had any questions or anything, [peer] would help me…she would help me word it to the pharmacist or to the doctor who I was talking to whatever… Meanwhile, while I was having a conversation, she was taking notes to make sure that I didn’t miss anything.”
“I was treated like just another human being… Usually, in like a hospital situation or most doctor situations…it feels like a judgmental situation. Since they know that you’re an addict, they start to look down on you or talk down to you. It’s like a judgmental thing. I didn’t feel any of that with this telemedicine at all. They talked to me like I was an equal.”
“I didn’t have to not go to work or make another appointment because of it. They came and I sat in the van. Then they punched it on the computer for me, and I talked to the doctor that way. It was real easy…It would be a walk-in almost. I just scheduled it and did it real fast. I didn’t have to wait.”
PATHS SITE TEAMS
QUOTES FROM PEER TEAMS THAT HAVE RECEIVED TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO IMPLEMENT THE PATHS PROGRAM.
“PATHS has been a game changer for our community! The process is so streamlined and easy that anyone could navigate the process. With each new hire our peers are getting more and more excited with the hope of eliminating HCV within our community.”
“PATHS is amazing, so fast, so smooth. The [OHSU] people are caring and want to help. It’s fricking awesome.”
“The PATHS program is the portrait of collaboration. Everyone has always been willing and available to help when hurdles come our way.”
PATHS TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PEERS AND CLINICIANS
QUOTES FROM PEERS AND CLINICIANS WHO HELPED DEVELOP PATHS AND PROVIDE THE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.
“I communicate with the peers to get information on how the patients are doing. If they need any additional visits or help with any of that, often I can’t get ahold of the participant, and so then I reach out to the peer. The peer is able to find them, locate them, and get them in touch with me… It largely has been the peers that have been really important in that process and in keeping the patients engaged and on-treatment.”
“[Peers] create trust in a way that could not be created, initially, with a clinician maybe over time. They sort of invite the clinician into their bubble of trust, and then warm hand-off that bubble. It probably has a greater impact on treatment initiation than even we think, I would guess. I talked to someone just a couple minutes ago doing a pre-treatment evaluation because their labs were a little bit off. They never ever go to a doctor because they feel really judged, and they said they’d go to a [Peer TeleHCV] doctor.”
“I’ve noticed for the people who have been able to come in and have that access to a doctor right then right there has significantly changed that. A lot of the people, who have tried to navigate through the community [outside of the Peer TeleHCV model], miss several appointments—were never really able to make it—so the more accessible we made it, the easier it was for people to actually get treated.”
“I feel like doing it telehealth for people who are in active addiction is a really trauma informed way of doing this. There’s a lot of people that are in active addiction who won’t go to doctors because they’re treated extremely bad. They would rather not get treated for an abscess or something like that than go into a doctor. So us being able to provide a telehealth system for them to be able to see a doctor is extremely trauma informed for most of these people that are coming in. They have no problem getting on a Zoom call.”