Mobile clinic brings opioid treatment to homeless Portlanders
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New Season hopes to expand its mobile opioid-use treatment center to reach more rural areas. Photo: Courtesy of New Season
A mobile medical unit is bringing substance-use treatment directly to some of Portland's unhoused residents as a way to eliminate barriers to care in a city struggling with an addiction and overdose epidemic — and it has expansion in its sights.
Why it matters: Transportation is among the biggest obstacles for those with opioid use disorder to receive life-saving drugs and remain in treatment, several studies suggest.
- New Season's clinic on wheels provides medication-assisted treatment, telemedicine and counseling on site at several Portland-area shelters.
What they're saying: "There's nothing like that here in Portland," Kaesha Green, the health and wellness director for Urban Alchemy, the operator of several of the city's Safe Rest Villages, told Axios.
- After sleeping on the street for so long, some residents don't like to leave their tiny homes and can often miss appointments or once-daily doses, Green added. The mobile clinic fixes that.
- "They literally just have to wake up and go to the van and get their dose, and it helps them with their sobriety."
Context: Because some drugs that treat opioid-use disorder, like buprenorphine and methadone, are considered controlled substances by the Drug Enforcement Administration, they require a special prescription and must be administered by a licensed pharmacist.
- Oregon has a shortage of treatment options available to those facing substance use disorder, and patients have reported difficulty in obtaining addiction medication from pharmacies in the state.
Between the lines: New Season, which runs treatment centers nationwide, launched its sole mobile unit, an extension of its Portland Treatment Center, back in September.
- The goal was "to reach those in the community that have a bit more difficulty in connecting directly to a clinic because of travel concerns," regional director Amanda Shepard told Axios.
How it works: Anyone, not just shelter residents, can access treatment via the mobile clinic.
- On-board clinicians conduct individual and group therapy, provide pharmaceutical services, offer consultations for other medical concerns and help patients without insurance find coverage.
- It currently makes daily, 90-minute stops at Victory Outreach Church in Hazelwood and Portland's largest outdoor homeless shelter, Clinton Triangle.
- Both Urban Alchemy and New Season are in talks to expand the mobile unit's services to the Reedway Safe Rest Village in Lents.
What's next: Shepard said New Season is looking to add mobile units across Oregon to serve more rural areas, including on Native American lands.