Burke County advisory committee endorses three opioid‑settlement programs for contracting

At a special Burke County advisory committee meeting, members voted to endorse three programs selected through a recent RFP to use opioid‑settlement funds and authorized staff to proceed to contracting.

Dr. Katie Samuels, a county staff member who led the RFP process, told the committee the county received 11 proposals between June 13 and July 11 and that three vendors — A Caring Alternative, High Country Community Health and SPARK — passed internal and committee review. "With your endorsement, we'll be able to take these proposals to the Board of Commission for final approval and start implementing some of these projects," Samuels said.

A Caring Alternative requested up to $300,000 to establish a Substance Abuse Comprehensive Outpatient Treatment (SACOT) program and a Substance Abuse Intensive Outpatient Program (SA IOP) inside Burke County. Tekken Brown, chief operations officer at A Caring Alternative, described the proposed schedule and staffing: SACOT would run five days a week and SA IOP would run three days a week with morning and evening…