SPONSORED SPECIAL SECTION CP DAAC
The Dr. Sushma D. Taylor Recovery Center celebrates its 1-year anniversary this fall 2025. [Duncan Garrett Photography]
for a heart attack, you’d expect to have follow-up care,” says Panush. “[The medical team] would find out what’s going on, have a treatment regime for you, and they would track that.” But if someone goes to an emergency department with an overdose, he points out, there’s rarely adequate managed care after they’re discharged. “If two-thirds of people coming into an emergency department with an overdose are not getting follow up, that needs addressing,” says Panush. “No other disease sees this kind of lack of follow-up care.” Adds Panush: “[Center Point DAAC] is not only addressing this from a communication standpoint but is actually bringing people together—they’re developing the relationships so you can have follow-up care, or [preventative] so people don’t wind up in the emergency room to begin with.” One of those relationships is with Sonoma County Behavioral Health Services, which oversees contracts for the various programs partnered with the county—and Center Point DAAC is among its largest contractors. When users seek admittance to DAAC’s residential program, the state requires county authorization within 24 hours, a tight window subject to bureaucratic delays. Will Gayowski, program manager at Sonoma County Behavioral Health Services, says they’ve worked with DAAC to streamline the admittance process and recent averages have been under 24 hours. Gayowski describes the county’s work with DAAC as “long and fruitful,” and that “in terms of value of service and quality it’s probably the best it’s been in years.” Gayowski credits DAAC’s growth to its ability to attract “higher quality employees.” “DAAC has a really strong partnership with our federally qualified health centers, so they get good MDs,” says Gayowski. “They’ve built up their medical model and are having a more medically directed and supported withdrawal experience that’s safer and more effective.”
creating stronger referral networks and reducing barriers to treatment across county lines. Once DAAC establishes its data of improved treatment outcomes, they can convert that model to counties similarly situated to Sonoma—such as Fresno, another medium-sized county surrounded by rural counties. By tracking treatment outcomes and identifying successful practices, DAAC hopes to create a model that could be replicated in other regions facing similar addiction challenges. Meanwhile, the synthetic opioid crisis continues to claim lives. An estimated 7,137 people died from a fentanyl overdose in California in 2023, according to the California Department of Public Health. While the 2024 fentanyl-related deaths were down to just under 5,000 statewide, health experts are cautious to assume the tide has turned on the opioid epidemic, says Kristin Kolbinski, clinical director at Center Point DAAC. For instance, she says, a certain amount of fentanyl-related deaths may have been replaced by those from other emerging drugs like kratom. If anything, the opioid crisis is becoming more urgent. Kolbinski says the evolving drug landscape means treatment providers cannot afford to become complacent. While fentanyl-related deaths have declined from recent highs, the need for treatment, education and early intervention remains urgent. For Denis, the work comes back to the clients who return again and again until recovery finally takes hold. The path is rarely linear, but every successful recovery demonstrates what is possible when treatment remains available, accessible and persistent. "The resources are there," Denis says. "The important thing is helping people take that first step." n
Rising Demand, Uncertain Funding Center Point DAAC leaders say client safety remains the guiding principle behind treatment decisions, even as potential funding challenges loom. But that lens could become foggier in 2026 when changes to federal spending on health care go into effect. More than $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid spending are expected over the next 10 years, according to data from the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the recent legislation known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Those cuts will trickle down to such state programs as Medi-Cal, potentially making it challenging for Center Point DAAC to sustain the high level of care that makes its programs successful. Meanwhile, at the top of DAAC’s priorities is public outreach—to let people know their services are available, far and wide. “The more information we can bring, the better,” says Denis. There’s misinformation about “the fear of withdrawal— how bad it’s going to be—which could be enough to scare people away from taking the first step.” But medication-assisted treatment mitigates all that, he says, and “there are a lot of people who are simply not aware.” Establishing a network Beyond Sonoma County, DAAC has an agreement with Partnership Health Plan of California—a nonprofit which networks with local providers such as DAAC to administer Medi-Cal benefits—to take client referrals from seven Northern California counties. It’s part of DAAC’s vision to address addiction from a statewide perspective; the nonprofit is working under the theory that many of the bureaucratic problems in recovery stem from local agencies working in silos, not as part of a broader network with the same goals. Through its partnership with Partnership Health Plan of California, DAAC now accepts referrals from seven Northern California counties. The effort reflects the organization's broader goal of
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