Partnership between PPB Bike Squad and addiction recovery crews becomes permanent
By Christina Giardinelli
PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — A pilot program that helps people struggling with addiction get connected to services is becoming permanent in downtown Portland. The program started in December of last year as a partnership between service providers and the Portland Police Bureau's bike squad.
Initially, the program was facilitated by a rotating crew of peer support outreach workers from a variety of Measure 110 funded organizations. The service providers involved in the program met weekly with PPB to debrief and plan outreach operations.
In the spring, officials announced they were using funding from a 90-day fentanyl emergency declaration to make the pilot program permanent with $683,000. The cost was evenly distributed among the state, county and city. The money will go toward renting office space, funding four full-time core outreach workers, one part-time manager and one part-time data analyst.
On Wednesday, officials cut the ribbon on the new office space located at the oldBastian Building on 434 N.W. 6th Ave. The office spaces will provide a place for service providers to meet with PPB officers but will not be an intake center for clients. Referrals will continue to be placed for service provider locations such as the county'sBehavioral Health Resource Center.
During the ribbon cutting, service providers gave examples of some of the 150 individuals the pilot program has helped.
"When Officer [David] Baer calls our team, I can remember one story he called us and our dispatch ran to answer the phone, and he said there is a nine-month pregnant girl smoking fentanyl," said Ricco Meija, a peer support outreach worker with theBehavioral Health Resource Center. "I did what we do, I introduced myself and said that we all have lived experience, we are putting compassion into action, and we are not here to judge you."
Meija said the soon-to-be mother accepted help and was connected with and transported to services on the spot.
"Two weeks later my phone rings, I am at work, just a normal day, and I say, 'Hello, this is Ricco Meija, how may I help you?' And she goes, 'This is so and so, I just want to let you know that I went in the ambulance from the detox to the hospital and went from the hospital to this inpatient drug treatment program, and I got my baby here with me,' and the baby started crying, and that is beautiful," he said.