City of Spokane approves contract with social service organization for ‘hot spotters’ program

SPOKANE, Wash. — The City of Spokane is moving forward on a one year contract with a social services organization that funds a program aiming to help people that bounce between jail, rehabilitation centers and court.

“The thought is if we can get this small group of folks that cause the most of those touches and we navigate them, then we’ll have the biggest impact,” said Dr. Darin Neven, the founder and CEO of Consistent Care.

By offering one-on-one care, this hot spotters program hopes to address Spokane’s growing opioid crisis by helping those who want help navigating the resources needed.

“We are looking for the right time when they are ready,” Neven said. “If they are not ready then we are waiting for them to get back to us when they are ready.”

Consistent Care was given a grant in June that kick started this program on a preliminary basis. The newly approved one-year contract will let the program keep going through October of next year. It will cost a total of $375,000 and is funded by opioid abatement settlement money.

“We are there to personally serve them and personally navigate them because they’re very complex cases,” said Dr. Neven.

Whether it’s mental illness or drug addiction, Consistent Care said it plans to stand with those helped through every step of the way. It offers each person an individualized plan and help them navigate the systems needed to get stabilization.

“It’s really like they need to go into a social ICU,” Neven said. “We do our best to connect the dots to get each of those things taken care of. But that takes really individualized, intense and sometimes daily coordination.”

This program will focus on helping up to 50 people at a time who struggle with opioid addiction and have become high utilizers of city services as a result.

“Those are the people we really want to impact, the people that have these multiple touches. Whereas if we help this one person, it’ll decrease 60 air visits to four incarcerations,” Neven said.

Consistent Care will work closely with police downtown, municipal court, the Spokane Regional Stabilization Center, and community court to identify the people who are the best fit for this program.