Addiction Services and Free HIV/Hep C screening

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Nancy Beste, Physician Assistant Executive Director or Mountain Medical
Nancy Beste, Physician Assistant Executive Director or Mountain Medical

by Tara Walker

Grand County residents now have a new resource providing addiction services as well as free Hepatitis C and HIV rapid screening. Mountain Medical and Behavioral Health has clinics in Steamboat Springs and Lakewood, but will now be visiting Hayden, Oak Creek, Kremmling, Walden, Fraser and Granby on a weekly recurring schedule. You can call 970-846-1231 to schedule mobile service.

Current Schedule:
Sunday: Hayden Mercantile at 111 N. 6th Street
Monday: Walden at North Park Medical Center at 350 McKinley St.
Tuesday: Oak Creek at Bonfiglio Drug Store at 118 W. Main St.
Wednesday: Fraser at Safeway at 40 CO Rd 804
Thursday: Granby at City Market 1001 Thompson Rd.
Friday: Kremmling at Middle Park Medical Center at 214 4th St.

Nancy Beste, a physician’s assistant, serves as executive director of Mountain Medical, which started in 2009 on the Front Range. She is excited to bring services to Grand County, “We are trying to be an entry portal so people that are struggling can come in to get medications to help with detox and we do physical and mental health. We do labs to help get them feeling better so whatever is driving them to use substances is managed better. We try to get them healthy enough to participate in therapy. We have counselors as well as nurses.”

The original plan for mobile services included use of a bus, but that won’t be available until April.

In the meantime, Mountain Medical is visiting communities and using temporary facilities to meet their needs.

Outpatient services that will be offered include detoxification from opioids, alcohol and amphetamines as well as medication assisted treatment like buprenorphine (suboxone) or naltrexone (vivitrol) to help with detoxification, stabilization and reducing cravings. Counseling will also be available in a variety of forms to best meet patient needs such as pain coping groups, individual counseling and more.

Beste talked of future goals, “We want to create sober community groups and train a local person to facilitate that in the future. We are willing to train members of the community
to be addiction counselors. In the meantime, we will provide tele therapy opportunities in Steamboat.”

Services provided are completely confidential for anyone in the community. If Mountain Medical
isn’t able to meet needs, they will work to connect patients to the
right resources to meet their needs. They accept insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, sliding scale and indigent.

Free Hepatitis C and HIV tests are also offered with results within 30 minutes and they only need to prick your finger. According to the Viral Hepatitis Surveillance in Colorado 2018 Annual Report from January 31, 2020, Grand County had 4 cases of chronic Hepatitis C cases in 2018, 2 cases in 2016 and 2 cases in 2017.