Snohomish County set to launch $1.4M mobile opioid treatment program

EVERETT — Snohomish County is mostly on track to step into “phase two” of its opioid settlement spending plan, starring a mobile treatment program for homeless, low-income and rural residents.

So far, the county has spent about $2.3 million of the more than $8 million it has received from opioid lawsuit settlements. It’s a fraction of the $35 million the county expects to get over the next 16 years, Emergency Management Director Lucia Schmit said in an update to County Council members Tuesday.

Phase one of the two-phase spending plan included staffing up county overdose prevention programs, distributing the opioid-reversing medication naloxone, known by the brand name Narcan, and distributing some money to local recovery-focused nonprofits.

This fall, the county plans to launch a mobile opioid treatment program. The county spent about $500,000 to retrofit a van to travel parts of Highway 2 and Highway 530, where Acadia Healthcare workers will provide opioid addiction medication and other recovery services. But the annual cost to keep up the program — about $900,000 — is “significantly higher” than expected, Schmit said. Initially, the program was budgeted for $600,000 per year, and the entirety of phase two was supposed to cost $800,000.

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/snohomish-county-set-to-launch-1-4m-mobile-opioid-treatment-program/