Addressing the needs of individuals who use drugs across the Sequential Intercept Model: Washington State's Strategic Solution to substance use, criminality, and the overdose crisis.

The Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA) seeks to develop and implement a comprehensive initiative to address the needs of individuals who use drugs across the Sequential Intercept Model. The proposed initiative focuses on providing several of Washington’s jurisdictions funding and technical assistance to bolster and support substance use treatment and response efforts in community as well as through interaction with law enforcement, courts, jails & prisons, and in reentry. The plan will address several of BJA’s strategic priorities identified in the National Drug Control Strategy. This includes expanding access to evidence-based substance use disorder treatment, such as medication-assisted treatment (MAT) coordination of medications for opioid use disorder and substance use disorder services for incarcerated individuals and those being released from a period of incarceration. Additionally, the HCA seeks to enhance evidence-based harm reduction efforts such a providing opioid overdose training to law enforcement and mobile crisis responders and expand the workforce and access to recovery support services by enhancing mobile crisis units and crisis relief centers with SUD professionals and peer supports. And the HCA will implement a Peer Mentor Program through Washington Department of Corrections to provide reentry support to those with SUD.  HCA will also build on its existing relationships with criminal legal system partners along the Sequential Intercept Model to create robust and tailored programmatic responses to address identified service gaps.