Progress on King County’s Response to the Opioid Overdose Crisis  

KUOW reported recently that while Washington overdose deaths continued to rise in 2023, there’s hope in King County’s numbers and current strategy that is increasing widespread access to treatment, medications, overdose reversal drugs, and places to go. In King County, the number of overdose fatalities by quarter fell in the final three months of 2023, and there was another decrease in the first quarter of 2024.  

In advance of the 2024 King County Substance Use Conference on June 6^th, we wanted to share the collective progress our team from DCHS and Public Health—Seattle & King County has made since announcing King County’s comprehensive response to the opioid overdose crisis in March.  

The 2024 King County Substance Use Conference: A Vision for Hope is on June 6^th at Highline College. Come and learn more about how treatments and medicines work, living in recovery, and how to connect to drug and/or alcohol use services throughout King County. Register today to attend virtually. We hope to see you there! kingcounty.gov/sudconference

While we build more places to go like the post-overdose recovery center, new sobering center, and 16-bed residential treatment facility, plus five crisis care centers in the years to come, we are reaching more people where they are today and creating more capacity within our behavioral health system right now.  

“Every day, people are accessing treatment, in higher numbers than ever before. We are expanding and making access to treatment and medication for opioid use disorder as low barrier as possible—through walk-in and mobile clinics, free prescription lines, naloxone kits in the community, in addition to more outreach and mobile crisis teams responding in-person.”—Susan McLaughlin, Behavioral Health and Recovery Division Director 

Highlights include: 

• Launched the new 24/7 ‘bup’ prescribing hotline, making it easier for people in King County to get on-demand access to a buprenorphine prescription. Participating doctors wrote 199 prescriptions (January 1-June 1) for the medicine that reduces opioid cravings and withdrawal symptoms. Check out this Q&A to learn more.   
• Distributed more than 38,000 naloxone kits, almost 30,000 test strips and awarded three new vending machines that will make for a total of five vending machines countywide. 
• Mobile Outreach Teams made 15,847 outreaches in the community for drug or alcohol use in Q1 2024. Outreach Teams include the Emergency Services Patrol that supports taking people to the sobering center in Seattle, in addition to teams from Metro, Sound Transit and City Hall Park that proactively help people at transit stations countywide and in downtown Seattle. Additionally, Mobile Crisis Teams, who respond to adults and youth experiencing an urgent or emergent mental health or substance-use crisis, made 880 outreaches. 
• 600 people were served by residential services for substance use in Q1. We currently have 404 residential beds for both mental health and substance use treatment in King County at 14 facilities with more on the way.   

Also of note, Next Day Appointments with a DCHS-contracted behavioral health provider are widely available for people experiencing a drug or alcohol use crisis. Providers can conduct an assessment and connect people to treatment. Anyone can call the Washington Recovery Help Line to help someone get an appointment scheduled for the next day: 1-866-789-1511 

“Being able to integrate all of these systems so people can get access to evidence-based care wherever they go, really makes me look forward to us having a fighting chance for the next couple of years.” –Brad Finegood, Strategic Advisor, Public Health Seattle & King County 

See more progress on all of King County’s 13 Actions to Stop Overdoses and Clear Paths to Recovery for All: 

1. Launch a 24/7 Buprenorphine Prescribing Line.  

• As of January 1, 2024, anyone can call 206-289-0287 to talk to a physician and get a prescription for Buprenorphine, a medication to treat opiate use.  
• In its first five months (January-June 1), participating doctors wrote 199 prescriptions. 

2. Enable 40+ existing behavioral health providers to begin providing Buprenorphine induction and ongoing treatment through Medicaid funding.  

• Currently 22 community walk-in clinics offer Buprenorphine induction in office today. We are finalizing our contracts to help more providers in our network offer it more easily. Providers will have an in-house prescriber or a partnership with a prescribing entity by end of year.   

3. Increase the capacity of 24/7 youth mobile crisis teams in the field from 3 to 5, and 24/7 adult mobile crisis teams from 17 to 27 teams countywide.  

• DCHS’ contract with the YMCA will be expanded after the Crisis Care Centers Implementation Plan is approved this summer.  
• DCHS released an RFP to expand mobile crisis teams for adults and will announce operators after the Crisis Care Centers Implementation Plan is approved in June. DESC is the current provider.  
• In Q1 2024, 880 outreaches were made to youth and adults by Mobile Crisis Teams. 

4. Invest in 6 new community navigators for public safety, health care, and community settings, to link people at risk of overdose to treatment and support harm reduction.  

• Public Health’s RFP for the 6 new community navigators is complete. The navigators will be trained up and in place this year.   

5. Open a 16-bed residential treatment program with Pioneer Human Services for people with co-occurring disorders (mental health and substance use) in Seattle.  

• The facility is under renovations and will open in Q4 2024. 

6. Partner with the City of Seattle to site and re-open a 24/7 sobering center that provides an essential health-supervised care setting.  

• In Q1 2024, a site for the new center was identified. Also in Q1, the current sobering center served 521 people.  

7. Partner with the City of Seattle, Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) and University of Washington to open a post-overdose recovery center.  

• DESC will operate the site in Downtown Seattle at the Morrison Hotel building on Third Avenue. Renovations will begin this year with capital funding from DCHS. The facility will open in 2025.  

8. Expand the number of King County fire departments that leave-behind naloxone at sites of overdoses where people are at high risk.  

• The 8 fire departments in King County that showed interest have them in stock today. We will be adding more as interest grows.  

9. Convene a county-wide Overdose Fatality Review process to review overdose fatalities and develop recommendations for policy changes to reduce overdose deaths.  

• The Overdose Fatality Review process launched and already convened five meetings.   

10. Test up to 1,000 drug samples annually, to reduce accidental drug poisonings, through expanding drug checking services in King County-based services.  

• In Q1 2024, Public Health scaled up three drug checking services and a mobile testing unit, testing more than 270 samples so far.  

11.  Distribute 45,000 naloxone kits and 100,000 test strips, a 15 percent increase from 2023, through a new centralized harm reduction supply center and vending machines.  

• In Q1 2024, Public Health distributed more than 38,000 naloxone kits, almost 30,000 test strips and awarded three new vending machines (so far) that will make for a total of five vending machines countywide.  

12. Add ~100 new apprenticeships statewide with half of the opportunities in King County. Apprenticeships range from behavioral health technicians, substance use disorder professionals, and peer counselors.  

• New apprenticeship program will be expanded this year and include a specific track for substance use professionals with funding from the Crisis Care Centers Levy funds, contingent upon Council approval.   

13. Distribute $2 million in overdose prevention grants from opioid settlement funds to disproportionately impacted underserved populations. Populations with high overdose rates include Black, Indigenous and communities of color, and people living unsheltered.