Shelton council hears plan to expand mobile integrated health using opioid settlement funds

Shelton City Council on Thursday heard a presentation from the Mesa Regional Fire Authority on expanding a mobile integrated health program and a proposal to use opioid settlement funds to seed staff and services. Abe Gardner, an emergency protection specialist with Mesa Regional Fire Authority, said roughly $107,000 in settlement funds is currently available and described a team model that pairs a physician assistant, peer support specialists and resource navigators with fire and emergency responders.

Gardner said the initiative, which he described as a field-based approach to mental-health and substance-use crises, “was called connections and care.” He told the council the team can provide on-scene assessment, prescriptions and referrals to follow-up care: “We can do prescriptions. We can do,” Gardner said, describing clinical capabilities added to field response.

Nut graf: Council members and local residents framed the proposal as an alternative-response model…