How a bus ride is saving lives in Utah’s coal country

Carbon and Emery counties were hit hard by the opioid crisis. Between 2006 and 2017 Carbon County had the highest opioid prescription rate in the state, the Tribune reported. In 2008 the prescription rate hit 194.2 prescriptions for every 100 people.

“Every week there was a death in the paper,” said Jeanie Willson, chief financial officer for Four Corners. People were dying, and Willson and her colleagues needed to do something.

The need for a solution was so urgent that in 2017, before opening the opioid treatment program in Price, they transported clients to Provo — an hour and a half drive over U.S. Highway 6 — once considered one of the nation’s “deadliest highways.”

The nonprofit started Operation Recovery in partnership with Project Reality in 2018. That same year, with the help of a one-time U.S. Department of Agriculture grant, they purchased a small fleet of vans and buses to ensure clients could make it to the clinic each day — although with nearly 100,000 miles on most of the vans they are trying to figure out where to get funds to purchase at least two new vehicles.

Four Corners relied on a grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to get started. They now sustain the program by billing insurance providers like Medicaid or Medicare.