FILE - A person sleeps outside a tent at one of the most populated homeless camps near downtown Vancouver in this 2021 file photo. A nonprofit will operate a motorhome-style vehicle in Vancouver to provide behavioral health and addiction services for unsheltered people.
Troy Brynelson / OPB
The City of Vancouver is starting its first mobile opioid treatment program. Officials finalized a contract for it Monday night after approving the program in January.
The mobile opioid treatment program will be a partnership between the city of Vancouver and Columbia River Mental Health Services. With funding from the city, the nonprofit will operate a motorhome-style vehicle to provide behavioral health and addiction services for unsheltered people in Vancouver.
One advantage of having a mobile unit is that people who are homeless won’t have to worry about their belongings being stolen while they’re at a doctor’s office, said Jamie Spinelli, Vancouver’s homeless response manager.
“That’s kind of a biggie, is they don’t want their things stolen,” Spinelli said. “So, getting them to go to a clinic is very difficult.”
She said patients also sometimes camp near medical centers to be close to those services or because of concerns about not being able to meet with their doctors. A mobile clinic that meets them where they are will hopefully lessen those worries.
“Largely, it just reduces barriers to access,” Spinelli said.
Patients will be able to get medications like methadone and suboxone and meet with case managers. The mobile treatment program will provide medical evaluations, one-on-one counseling and will be a place people can get screened for diabetes, hepatitis, HIV and other conditions.
The mobile unit will be able to visit existing shelters as well as temporary encampments. Long-term, it will be based at the 150-bed bridge shelter that the city is in the process of building in Vancouver’s Van Mall neighborhood. That shelter is expected to open in mid-2026 and remain operational for at least the next decade.
The city of Vancouver is paying $1.65 million for the first year of operation for the mobile treatment program. That money will come from the city’s remaining $2.58 million in opioid settlement funds from pharmaceutical companies that contributed to the opioid crisis.
A representative from Columbia River Mental Health Services did not respond to an interview request before publication.
According to Spinelli, the health care provider will outfit the mobile opioid treatment unit over the next few months.
