Mobile Comprehensive Opioid Addiction Treatment
By Amanda Jepson | Categories: | Comments Off on Mobile Comprehensive Opioid Addiction Treatment
WVU Medicine is expanding access to essential care by delivering prevention and treatment services directly to communities across West Virginia, a state where geography often limits access to health care. Through its mobile health fleet—including Bonnie’s Bus, a mobile mammography unit, and Lucas, a mobile lung cancer screenings unit—WVU brings high-quality screening and early detection services to residents in even the most remote areas. Operated by WVU Hospital and the WVU Cancer Prevention and Control team, in partnership with local clinics, businesses, and community providers, these units ensure rural patients receive timely, lifesaving care close to home.
Building on this model, WVU Medicine operates the Mobile Comprehensive Opioid Addiction Treatment (COAT) program to support individuals and families affected by the opioid crisis in rural areas. Serving about 100 patients, offering flexible levels of care on a weekly, bimonthly, or monthly basis, based on patients’ needs. Services include medication-assisted treatment, individual and group therapy, health screenings, and wraparound support.
The Mobile COAT program is more than a treatment model; it is a community-centered approach. By collaborating with peer recovery specialists, quick-response teams, and local community providers, the program helps patients address social determinants of health, such as housing instability, food insecurity, and transportation challenges. Delivering care in a mobile setting helps reduce stigma, foster trust within communities, and remove logistical barriers that often prevent individuals from seeking help.
By integrating cancer prevention, primary care, and substance use disorder treatment into its mobile health strategy, WVU Medicine demonstrates how bringing care to the patient strengthens community health, advances equity, and responds directly to some of West Virginia’s most urgent health needs.