It’s a cool September night at a park in Fort Worth, just down the road from the Stockyards. Music booms from a DJ’s speakers, tarot card readers consider people’s fortunes, and kids work on crafts at a picnic table.
Like any festival, there’s lots of free stuff — but here, the goodies are all about health. Attendees can pick up condoms, menstrual supplies, syringes and HIV and hepatitis C screens.
It’s part of a series of events called Tested & Rested, put on by the nonprofits O.D. Aid and Re+Birth Equity Alliance.
The events are designed to be a space where people can get important health supplies in a comfortable setting, said Jen Sarduy, Re+Birth’s co-director and one of the event organizers.
“It’s important to us that our community can have the experience of testing that provides them with the most dignity,” they said. “It’s the testing that our community deserves. It comes with wellness and fun.”
Ease and privacy are important to Sarduy when it comes to STI screening.
"They're just out on a table. We don't need your name, you can take the screening, and it has information with it on how to do it if you want to take it home with you,” they said.
The hepatitis C screening requires a single prick with a lancet, and the HIV test is an oral swab, Sarduy said. The tests are rapid-response and can be done at the event or at home. Each one comes with instructions and information on how to follow up for further care, if needed.
Tyler Brown, who works in HIV prevention, attended the event in September and noted how welcoming it felt.
“Because there’s all ages here, it seems like it’s a way... maybe for people to feel more comfortable, as opposed to going to a clinical setting,” he said.
This access is even more important during the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted Tarrant County Public Health’s STI testing for months. The county's Arlington clinic was shut down from mid-March until early October, and STI testing outreach events were cancelled as staff members shifted their focus to the pandemic.
An April survey from the National Association of County Health Officials found that other departments around the country did the same.
In the survey, local health departments said they worried about outbreaks of STIs because of limited health services, or people being reluctant to seek medical care during the pandemic.
“Others discussed the risk for complications, especially those associated with untreated STIs, such as congenital syphilis, pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility,” the survey said.
Tarrant County Public Health said in an email that it will take some time to know the pandemic’s impact on STI transmission locally.
“Unfortunately, due to restrictions on public health interventions during the pandemic, the infection rate of STD and HIV populations is unknown. As the clinics do their outreach over the next few months it will be more clear how the public has fared during the pandemic,” the emailt said.
Sarduy said they’ve handed out close to 150 screening kits at Tested & Rested events so far, including at an event exclusively for sex workers, in partnership with the Dallas chapter of the Sex Workers Outreach Project.
Tested & Rested also offers training with naloxone nasal spray,commonly known as Narcan, a drug that counters opioid overdoses.
Overdoses and overdose deaths have spiked nationwide during the pandemic.
Lizzie Maldonado is a co-organizer of Tested & Rested and the director of O.D. Aid, a Fort Worth nonprofit that aims to help people prevent overdoses.
“People who use drugs are the first responders to the overdose crisis, and that when people who use drugs drugs directly have Narcan and naloxone and safer consumption supplies, they will reverse overdoses," Maldonado said. "They will respond to crisis in their community, they will keep each other safe by not reusing or sharing.”
Even though some of the services COVID-19 shut down are back online, Tested & Rested will continue. The next event is at Como Park in Fort Worth on Nov. 7.
Got a tip? Email Miranda Suarez at msuarez@kera.org. You can follow Miranda on Twitter @MirandaRSuarez.
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