The Olympia Bupe Clinic opened at the Capital Recovery Center on Cherry Street Southeast, which also houses the county-run syringe exchange. It provides buprenorphine, which serves as a safer alternative to opioids and heroin, which is the drug people with opioid use disorder often turn to when their prescriptions run out. The Bupe Clinic was the brainchild of Malika Lamont, former program director of the exchange, and Dr. Grande. Seed funding came from the Cascade Pacific Action Alliance, as a Medicaid Transformation Demonstration pilot project, and the clinic later received $600,000 through a federal State Opioid Response grant. One of the founders’ goals was to make buprenorphine easier to access than heroin, Dr. Grande said. “The premise was that every day using buprenorphine instead of heroin was a safer day.” Barriers to access care at the clinic are minimal: Walk-in patients walk away with their prescribed buprenorphine the same day.
Source: The Olympian
https://www.theolympian.com/news/local/article238117969.html