Health Advocacy Training Webinar - “Meeting People Where They Are: Inside Seattle’s Model for Rapid Access to Opioid Use Disorder Treatment”

This webinar takes an inside look at the design and implementation of an innovative service delivery model for overdose survivors, people experiencing homelessness, and people living in permanent supportive housing in Seattle. For anyone working to expand access to addiction treatment amid the ongoing overdose crisis, this program offers a model of what care can look like when it meets people where they are.

Presenters from the Opioid Recovery Care Access (ORCA) Center, part of Seattle’s Downtown Emergency Services Center (DESC), will discuss their approach to providing rapid access to medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) through daily walk-in services and 24/7 post-overdose care, including sublingual and long-acting injectable buprenorphine and methadone bridging. They will also cover how ORCA’s Patient Outreach Division brings this care directly to clients in supportive housing and shelters.

The webinar will conclude with a Q&A session for participants.

About our Speakers:

Taylor Bozich, MD (she/her), is an internal medicine and addiction medicine physician and Provider Supervisor at the ORCA (Opioid Recovery and Care Access) Center at DESC in Seattle. There, she cares for patients, supervises the provider team, and leads program development to expand access to evidence-based treatment. Dr. Bozich completed her internal medicine residency at UC San Francisco and her addiction medicine fellowship at the University of Washington. She is deeply committed to providing and expanding compassionate, harm reduction-based care for people who use drugs.

Carson Bell, MPH (she/her), is the operations manager of DESC's ORCA POD (Patient Outreach Division) team. Carson has been at the agency for six years and is passionate about providing compassionate care to individuals often stigmatized, including people who use drugs or people who have severe mental health illnesses. Carson utilizes harm reduction strategies to guide her work.

Lupe Hurtado, CPSS, RAAC, CCPC (she/her), is dedicated to advancing person-centered, trauma-informed care for individuals experiencing homelessness, substance use disorders, and complex behavioral health challenges. Drawing on both professional expertise and lived experience perspectives, she has helped develop innovative post-overdose engagement strategies that strengthen connections to care, harm reduction services, and recovery supports. Her work focuses on peer integration, overdose prevention, cross-system collaboration, and reducing barriers to treatment.

NOTE: Zoom details will be sent with your ticket receipt. Please contact lisa.capitani@d4dpr.org if you do not have an email from info@d4dpr.org or doctors@d4dpr.org.

This webinar will be recorded and shared with registered guests and posted on the Health Advocacy Network (HAN) and Physicians for Opioid Settlement Equity (POSE) Portals on our website.

D4DPR webinars and events are supported by our members and donors, and may be supported with funding from the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), and/or the Open Society Foundations (OSF). Support does not influence D4DPR’s policy positions or educational content.