ST. LOUIS — Assisted Recovery Centers of America (ARCA) welcomed a brand new 40-foot Freightliner mobile clinic Tuesday morning that can help end the surge of drug overdose deaths in the St. Louis region.
Aaron Laxton, executive director with ARCA, said this "year-and-a-half in the making project" received funding from the Missouri Department of Mental Health. The truck is about initiating relationships and building trust with those affected by drug overdose.
“This is really another tool in our toolbox to get addiction treatment to individuals who may not otherwise set foot into a clinic,” he said. “This is taking addiction treatment out into the community to try and reduce the soaring overdose deaths the community has been experiencing over the last five years.”
Suneal Menzies, the chief operating officer at ARCA, said the mobile clinic was designed in Ohio and delivered Tuesday at about 10 a.m. The staffing team then received almost three hours of training to learn the “bells and whistles” of the mobile facility.
Menzies said the truck is a comprehensive, behavioral health, substance abuse disorder mobile treatment clinic.
"A primary focus, as it is in most areas of our work, is really about access to care," he said.
When the pandemic started, the service initially operated from only a car and served the homeless population of St. Louis areas. Then, during a pilot mission with PreventED, who allowed ARCA to use their mobile treatment unit, ARCA served more regions including Dellwood, Jennings, University City, St. Peters, Baden, and deeper into the City of St. Louis, according to Menzies.
“What we saw as we went through this pilot … was the further you got to the city … the heavier the foot traffic … and one of the big calls from the Department of Mental Health is the disproportionate overdose rates and statistics that are coming out regarding African Americans,” he said.
More specifically, males in the African American community, Menzies added.
“We know from decades and decades of lack of resources, intentional benign-neglect of these communities, generational-trauma … call it whatever you want, but the opioid epidemic has raged and fueled among the poor and then the Black communities,” he said.
According to Menzies, nearly half of drug related overdose deaths in the state are happening right in the St. Louis metro area.
"The immediacy of death that now results from this version of the opioid epidemic, one that fentanyl is front and center of everything, has created a really different problem and a true state of homeless. One where people are not just without family or friends, but truly have lost everything," he said.
Menzies said mobile clinic patients can receive same-day, immediate access to medical detox and stabilization tools. One tool is suboxone, a fixed-dose combination medication that includes buprenorphine and naloxone. Also, prevention and harm-reduction help will be available using narcan and fentanyl-testing strips.
Both treatments are for opioid overdose, withdrawal symptoms and cravings.
Patients will also have access to behavioral health through support specialists, social workers, and therapists. Also, a medical team that includes doctors, nurses, and medical providers will be on hand. Medication, primary care, housing, Medicaid enrollment, and food stamp application assistance will also be available.
"Mental health and substance abuse is not something that people go out and talk about. It's not a good restaurant, it's not a great orthopedic surgeon, so it is a very quiet and personal type of illness," Menzies said.
It's an illness, that Laxton knows, all too well.
"I have three family members, who I've lost to fentanyl overdose. If folks would have saw me years ago, I’m not the person I am now, I was using more than I wasn’t," he said.
Laxton said because someone believed in him, he doesn't want to give up on anyone else.
"How I'll know this truck is a success is when we don't have any more family members that are dying, any more community members that are dying," he said.
The mobile treatment clinic is in Chesterfield as of Tuesday but will be fully operational by March in other parts of the region.
According to Laxton, the plan is to have a soft opening on March 6.
There will be a mobile stop at Refuge and Restoration, which is a community incubator in the Dellwood community, Living with Purpose in Baden, and south and north sides of the St. Louis region, Menzies.
Laxton added that ARCA relies on faith and community leaders to tell them where to go. So, individuals can visit the ARCA website and request the truck visit their event or location. Telehealth options are also available.
Treatment on the mobile clinic is 100% free, no insurance is required, and no appointments are needed.
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