Since 1966, the Bernard F. Gipson Eastside Family Health Center has provided primary care to Coloradans. The historic health center has a new addition — and it’s hard to miss.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, a large blue and orange bus is parked outside the community clinic. The mobile health center is a new initiative from Denver Health that aims to better treat patients struggling with opioid use disorder.
It’s called the MOMAT unit, which stands for Mobile Opioid Medication Assisted Treatment .
“Methadone is an opioid. It’s a long-acting opioid, meaning that a person only needs to take it one time a day, and they can feel good for 24 hours,” Dr. Jarratt Pytell, who is an addiction medicine and primary care doctor at the clinic, explained. “There’s often an overlap for many people with opioid use disorder, that chronic pain is a contributor. An opioid use disorder can make pain worse, pain can make an opioid use disorder worse. And fortunately, we have really highly effective medications like methadone that is great for pain and also great for opioid use disorder.”