Walter Boyd has struggled with drug addiction for most of his 57 years.

It wasn’t until a shelter worker during the COVID-19 pandemic connected Boyd – whose health, without medication, deteriorated while homeless – to services at Denver Health.

“There’s still a lot of people on the street that need help,” said Boyd, who is drug free and housed. “We’ve got a lot of Walters.”

Boyd joined health care workers with the Center for Addiction Medicine on Thursday to showcase Denver Health’s new mobile methadone dispensary -believed to be the first of its kind in Colorado – and to discuss using less stigmatizing language.

“There are small changes that can take the blame away from individuals and that matters,” said Dr. Hannan Braun, a Denver Health addiction medicine physician.

To highlight the point, attendees on Thursday wore white shirts that said “Words Matter.”

Dr. Josh Blum, medical director for Denver Health’s opioid treatment program, argued that primary care physicians are best equipped, but not permitted, to provide medication-assisted treatment.

“This is really about holistic treatment,” Blum said.

Methadone is an opioid, like heroin or oxycodone, that has been used to treat opioid dependence since the 1950s and requires patients to take a daily dose to reduce withdrawal symptoms and cravings.

Methadone can only be dispensed through a federally certified opioid treatment program.

The mobile unit is expected to roll out and serve patients later this year.

Colorado and the United States have been in the grip of an overdose crisis.

After a reprieve, of sorts, from fentanyl overdoses last year, the opioid appears to be making a deadly come back with preliminary numbers in Denver showing a roughly 16% increase this year, public health data shows.

Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic 50 times more potent than heroin. A fentanyl overdose can happen much quicker and be more difficult to halt than one caused by other opioids.

Nearly 1,800 Coloradans died from a overdose last year.

The event Thursday was held on International Overdose Awareness Day, which is observed on August 31 to bring attention to the fact overdoses are preventable.