People living in homeless camps struggle to access drug treatment in Clark County, contributing to a wave of overdose deaths. A new program seeks to fix that.
“If we can go to where they’re located, then they don’t have to depend upon somebody else,” said Sarah Brown, chief policy and compliance officer with Columbia River Mental Health Services.
The agency, which offers mental health counseling and addiction treatment for people with low or no income, plans to run a mobile clinic out of a recreational vehicle that will go to homeless camps in Clark County and, eventually, the city’s upcoming 150-bed homeless shelter. Columbia River Mental Health Services staff estimate the program will launch six to nine months from now.
The program would be the first of its kind in Southwest Washington, Brown said.
The possibility of a mobile medication-assisted addiction treatment program is relatively new. In 2021, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration lifted a two-decade ban on mobile delivery of methadone, a medication to treat addiction to opioids.
As the opioid epidemic ravages the U.S., mobile treatment clinics can help fill gaps in services.
Homeless clients frequently tell providers they struggle to reach a clinic for consistent treatment without reliable transportation. Some say they don’t want to leave their tents and other items unattended to go to clinics.
“Us being able to go to them reduces the risk of them losing everything that they have,” Brown said.
When someone first starts treatment, they have to receive medication daily, said Victor Jackson, CEO of Columbia River Mental Health Services. Getting to a clinic every day can be a huge burden for someone battling homelessness, he said.
“When someone makes the decision that they don’t want to use anymore, that’s a very short window before the addiction says otherwise,” Jackson said. “So being able to be there in their time and place of need is a more effective way to get someone engaged in services.”
The program aims to reduce the number of people suffering and dying from drug addiction in Clark County.
The number of deaths among the homeless community increased by 26 percent from 2023 to 2024, according to the city of Vancouver. Half of deaths in both years have been due to drug overdoses. City staff have previously estimated almost 500 people experience unsheltered homelessness in Vancouver.
Columbia River Mental Health Services’ NorthStar Clinic in central Vancouver can handle 750 clients, Jackson said. He said the goal for the mobile clinic is to have 50 clients on its roster at a time.
The only way to sustain the mobile program is through public funds, he said.
The city of Vancouver is considering using $1.65 million of its $2.54 million in opioid settlement funds (money from opioid distributors for marketing practices that helped fuel the opioid epidemic in Washington) for the first year of the mobile clinic, according to a staff report.
Jackson hopes more local governments will consider putting public funding toward the program.
“We’re very excited about it. I think it’s going to be a wonderful service, especially in Southwest Washington,” Jackson said. “It really is an innovative way to handle someone’s care at their time and place of need.”