MARENGO COUNTY-We all know prescription medications are costly and unaffordable for some who need them. But, residents of Marengo County can look to the Pharmaceutical Assistance Program, or PAP, for help with expensive prescription products.

“The program is for people who don’t have prescription coverage and a low income and can’t afford their prescriptions,” Gloria Abrams, nurse at the Bryan Whitfield Memorial Hospital and Marengo’s PAP contact, said. “It saves them money and they can live a lot better.”

Abrams has been working with PAP since February and has talked with more than 260 Marengo citizens who need pharmaceutical aid.

“Those who make too much money to qualify for the program may be able to get a discount card or apply for another discount program,” she said. “You have to have a certain income and it depends on how many people are in the household as well.”

The Alabama Delta Rural Health Network in collaboration with West Alabama Mental Health, Marengo Public Health and the Marengo Department of Human Resources provides partial funding for PAP and citizens who wish to apply for the program must bring proof of income and a list of medications needed.

According to Abrams, the total costs of most generic brand medications are covered by PAP and many residents end up getting their prescriptions free of charge.

Abrams is currently touring the county to meet with residents who need assistance.

On Mondays from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. she will be at the Bryan W. Whitfield Memorial Hospital Outpatient Center.

On the third and fourth Tuesdays of the month she will be at the West Alabama Mental Health Center, 1215 South Walnut Avenue, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

On the first and fourth Wednesdays she will visit the Rockbabylon Baptist Church in Dixon Mills from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and at the same times on the second and third Wednesdays at the Surginer Church of God.

Thursdays she visits the Old Health Center, the building next to the post office in Thomaston, from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and the West Alabama Mental Health Center from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

On every Friday except the first Friday of the month she will be at the West Alabama Mental Health Center from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.