Clark County bolsters opiate treatment

Columbia River Mental Health Services will soon be able to treat 100 more people with opiate addictions after the Clark County council voted to increase its capacity.

Councilors Jeanne Stewart and David Madore voted at Tuesday’s council meeting to approve a request from the Department of Community Services to increase the treatment capacity of the Opiate Substitution Program from 350 patients to 450 at the NorthStar Clinic at 6926 E. Fourth Plain Blvd., Vancouver. Councilor Tom Mielke was absent from the meeting.

Vanessa Gaston, director of Clark County Community Services, said there is currently a waiting list for treatment at the outpatient facility. Increasing the patient limit will enable the department to provide more help to those who need it.

“When you have people that are addicted to opiates, which is a hard drug to try to treat, it’s important to have these (treatment programs) as an option,” Gaston said.

The program is supported by state funding, Gaston said, and therefore increasing its patient limit will have no budget impacts on Clark County’s funds.

Addiction and deaths related to opiates — which include heroin and a range of prescription painkillers — is on the rise in Clark County and across the country, according to Clark County Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From 2010 to 2012, the number of heroin-related deaths doubled from one per 100,000 people to two per 100,000 people, according to the CDC.

For more information on the program, visit clark.wa.gov/alcohol-drug.