Prescription help comes to Franklin

The "Help is Here Express," a big orange bus, was in Franklin on Friday to help uninsured Virginians gain access to information on programs that provide prescription medicines for free or nearly free.

Eleven hundred people in the Franklin and Isle of Wight County areas may soon need the service when International Paper leaves the region.

Hundreds of employees have already lost jobs. But help rolled into town Friday, giving a lifeline to people who need medicine. The "Help is Here Express" bus parked next to the Franklin Department of Social Services on Main Street.

Therome Spivey is one of those people who needs any help he can get while he looks for work. "I've been searching everyday. It's not very good. All the jobs that are out there are taken and obviously, futuristically, IP is going to be taking a lot more of those jobs and their going to have to take some priority," Spivey told WAVY.com.

Spivey used to work at Smithfield Foods. He's one of more than 400 employees the company laid off in Isle of Wight County this year.  Herbert Darden is one of more than 200 who've already lost jobs with International Paper.

"It's really tore our household to pieces," Darden said. Darden's last day of work was in June, when the lumber mill closed. He also lost his health insurance. He explained, "Insurance the company offered when our job got terminated, it was too high. We couldn't afford it."

In addition to work, the Dardens and the Spiveys need medicine. A bus delivered a prescription for help.

Darden held up a sheet a counselor in the bus gave him and said, "This is a discount card and you give it to your pharmacist and they plug in the information and they give you a discount on your prescriptions."

Greg Lopes, Director for Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association told WAVY.com, "A lot of people don't have health insurance and a lot of people are struggling financially. And a medicine that sits on the shelf doesn't do anyone any good."

America's pharmaceutical research companies sponsor the Partnership for Prescription Assistance program. It's designed to help all Americans who don't have prescription benefits, but do have financial struggles.

Darden admitted he'd skipped his meds, and worried about potential impacts. "I'd probably die because I need my sugar medicine and my blood pressure medicine and my heart medicine," he said.

For a community dealt too many doses of hardship since the recession, the large orange bus was an easy pill to swallow.

"You're in between a rock and a hard place. You can't buy it and nobody's going to give you any, this is a blessing," Darden smiled.

The bus tour is part of the Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA) - a nationwide effort sponsored by America's pharmaceutical research companies and supported by PPA's national spokesperson, Montel Williams.

The "Help is Here Express" is staffed by trained specialists who will help patients access information and enroll in any of the hundreds of patient assistance programs that are a part of PPA.

Patients can visit PPA's easy-to-use Web site or call the by calling their toll-free phone number at 1-888-4PPA-NOW.