‘Clinic on wheels’: Cooper Health takes substance use treatment on the road with new mobile van in Camden

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Leaders at Cooper University Health Care’s Center for Healing unveiled a new mobile treatment “van” Tuesday in Camden that will focus on delivering care to people struggling with drug use and substance use disorders.

The goal of the joint project with Camden County is to bridge gaps in care for people who can’t get to brick-and-mortar clinics, or who’ve experienced discrimination and stigma in typical health care settings.

“This is our clinic on wheels,” said Dr. Matthew Salzman, an emergency physician and addiction specialist at Cooper. “This is an opportunity to meet patients where they are, get them familiar with what we do and how we do it and hopefully garner some trust.”

A boxy trailer unit affectionately named Betty was hitched to a Cooper EMS pickup truck near the corner of Broadway and Carl Miller Boulevard in Camden. The colorful exterior is decorated in watercolor patterns and illustrations of seashells, butterflies and plants.

Through a door at the front of the trailer, Salzman stood in a bright narrow space.

“Registration happens here. This is kind of a waiting area, so patients can sit here,” Salzman said, gesturing to a couple chairs and a cushioned sitting bench.

A dry-erase board up on the wall reflected the names of a doctor, nurse and patient navigator who would be staffing the unit in coming days.

“And we have a dedicated exam room, the door closes,” Salzman said. “So, if we need a private space to talk with patients, they can come in.”

The room is equipped with medical instruments used to listen to heart beats and breathing, examine eyes and ears and do blood pressure readings. There’s also supplies for cleaning and dressing wounds, harm reduction tools like fentanyl testing kits and naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal medication.

This is also where patients can get medications like buprenorphine, which is used to treat opioid use disorder.

“For patients who are either in withdrawal or afraid they are going to miss a dose, have problems with a prescription, we’re able to dose them right here on site,” Salzman said.

The mobile unit was purchased with a $314,000 grant from the county’s opioid settlement dollars from national lawsuits against drug manufacturers and distributors.

Camden County Commissioner Director Louis Capelli, Jr. said the investment in the unit will “go a long way” in educating and treating more people in the community.

“This year, the number of deaths by overdose in Camden County is down drastically,” he said, and credited county initiatives like naloxone distribution and widespread addiction awareness campaigns, but added, “We still have a long way to go.”

Local health providers said the mobile van is a way to initiate health care in a compassionate, nonjudgmental way.

Salzman said the goal is to then connect people with long-term care providers, specialists and treatment programs, as well as social services that can help with housing, food and other needs.

“We’re able to link patients to our clinic and we’re also able to help coordinate their interaction with primary care, which we know our patients often don’t access,” he said.

The mobile unit will eventually be stationed at various locations throughout Camden on different days. For now, the trailer, or van, will be parked outside Seeds of Hope Ministries, a faith-based community outreach organization, on Saturdays.

Organization director and founder Brenda Antinore said it’s a needed resource in the community and for the people who come to her for help.

“I can take them to a safe environment and know that they’re going to be accepted, that they’re going to be loved, that they’re not going to be judged,” she said.