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Consistent Care seeks one-year extension for downtown 'hot spotters' navigation program
Summary
Consistent Care asked the council to continue a program that helps high utilizers of police, court and emergency services into substance use and mental health treatment; staff provided metrics from August through January.
Consistent Care briefed the Spokane City Council Jan. 6 on a proposal to extend its “hot spotters” navigation program for another year following a three-month emergency contract that began in the summer of 2024.
Dr. Darren Nevin, representing Consistent Care, said the program identifies people who are high users of downtown court, police and emergency services and works to connect them with substance use disorder and mental health treatment. “We were awarded a three-month emergency contract to navigate people that were high utilizers in the downtown corridor,” Nevin said, and the organization later won a competitive RFP for continued services.
Tina, a social worker with Consistent Care, said the program has produced measurable outcomes since she joined in August: 12 people have completed the program, about 25 active cases are open now, and the team estimates they have navigated roughly 50 to 60 people into services during the program’s run. Tina said nine clients were placed into inpatient treatment and roughly six to 10 were connected to outpatient services, methadone or buprenorphine (Suboxone) programs. The team has distributed about 30 cell phones; Tina reported “successful communication for a duration of two weeks following giving a phone from roughly 70% of those individuals.”
Nevin described the work as highly individualized and resource-intensive. He and staff said the city’s contract would fund navigation and casework to locate available treatment slots and to support clients through placements that staff described as complicated by gaps in the broader health system.
Council members asked for quantification of outcomes and the staff provided the figures above during the briefing. No formal council action on the contract extension was recorded in the transcript during this session.
