How Oklahoma City is Using Opioid Settlement Funds to Improve Post-Overdose Response and Community Outreach

Program Overview: The Oklahoma City Fire Department’s Mobile Integrated Healthcare program launched in May 2025. Approximately 30% of its funding comes from the City’s share of opioid settlement funds, with the remainder supported by the Fire Department’s general fund. Staffed by a multidisciplinary team of behavioral health clinicians, system navigators, paramedics, and peer recovery support specialists, the mobile program delivers supportive, tailored responses to behavioral health–related emergencies. The program encompasses several teams, including the Alternative Response Team, which (1) follows up with individuals after nonfatal overdoses, (2) distributes naloxone (an evidence-based overdose reversal medication), (3) conducts field-based buprenorphine inductions (an evidence-based medication for opioid use disorder), and (4) links individuals with ongoing community-based treatment and recovery services.

Linking Settlement Spending to Identified Needs: The mobile program’s creation was informed by recommendationsfrom a community engagement process funded by the City to guide law enforcement reform across eight key domains. In addition to gathering input from the city’s Law Enforcement Policy Task Force and Community Policing Working Group, the process included over twenty community listening sessions, targeted discussions with representatives from BIPOC, LGBTQ, school and youth communities, and behavioral health professionals, as well as a community survey that received over 1,600 responses. Stakeholders demonstrated broad support for an alternative response model that centers behavioral health professionals rather than police in responses to behavioral health crises.

Leveraging State Settlement Funds to Enhance Program Capacity: Oklahoma City’s Mobile Integrated Healthcare program received a $572,697 grant from Oklahoma’s Opioid Abatement Board to broaden the program’s reach. This additional funding enables the program to serve as a local hub for naloxone distribution, supporting bulk distribution to organizations and businesses that regularly engage individuals in the city’s high-risk areas. The funding also supports the addition of two new staff members whose roles will focus on proactive community outreach and education, complementing the program’s existing emergency response infrastructure.

Alignment with the Principles

• Principle 1—Spend the Money to Save Lives: Local settlement dollars were used to create a new program that increases access to life saving harm reduction services, medications for opioid use disorder, and referrals for ongoing services. The program is using state settlement dollars to expand its services.
• Principle 2—Use Evidence to Guide Spending: Naloxone is a vital evidence–based intervention that saves lives by reversing overdoses. Medications for opioid use disorder, like buprenorphine, are associated with more than a 50% reduction in overdose mortality. Equipping paramedics to conduct field-based buprenorphine inductions is a promising strategy for increasing treatment access and facilitating referrals to ongoing care.
• Principle 5—Develop a Fair and Transparent Process for Deciding Where to Spend the Funding: Oklahoma City’s need for the mobile program was determined through a community engagement process that solicited feedback from a diverse group of community members. Details of the community engagement process, the recommendations it yielded, and the implementation status of each recommendation are publicly available.