Opioid Settlement Case Studies: Real Programs, Budgets & Outcomes
This library documents how communities across the country are using opioid settlement and abatement funds to expand prevention, treatment, recovery, and overdose prevention services. Each case study profiles a single program in a single jurisdiction and details its funding, partners, design, and outcomes, from same-day buprenorphine care in Burlington, Vermont, to a rural walk-in recovery center in Walker County, Alabama.
Use the filters to sort by settlement category, service type, population served, community type, state, and budget range, then open any profile to review the budget, results, and lessons learned. Each model is presented as a reference point rather than a prescription, so you can adapt the elements that fit your community's needs and capacity.
Therapeutic Mentoring for Rural Middle School Boys
In Gunnison County, CO, eight to 12 boys per cycle meet weekly with a therapist and are matched with paid mentors who have their own recovery experience.
EMBARK: In-Home Care Coordination for Pregnant Mothers
One coordinator now reaches 17 Kentucky counties, up from four, linking pregnant mothers to prenatal care, treatment and the rent that keeps a baby home.
Immediate Medication Access for the General Jail Population
97 people were on medication in the Chesterfield County, VA jail, delivered by a six-person team held separate from the therapeutic community already running.
Prenatal Care and Addiction Medicine on One Team
10 to 12 pregnant clients at a time get prenatal care, addiction medicine and peer support from one team in Reno, Nevada, on $445K a year in settlement funds.
HEART: Treatment That Follows People Into Custody
37 people in a northwest Virginia regional jail keep their opioid medication from the day they are booked, with counseling, peer support and groups inside.
Paid Therapy for a Rural County's Uninsured Workers
144 residents of Colorado's Gunnison County got 10 paid therapy sessions in 2025, each choosing their own therapist from a network of 57 local clinicians.
EMPOWERED: Care From Pregnancy to Two Years Postpartum
117 women in Las Vegas got counseling, peer support, and care coordination through pregnancy and two years postpartum, not six weeks, on $594K in settlement funds.
Converting a State Building into Rural Treatment Beds
A vacant state office building near Booneville, AR reopened as a licensed 24-bed residential treatment center on a one-time $738,903 settlement award.
Family Recovery Housing Preventing Foster Care Placement
Six townhomes in Lakewood, CO house whole families for a year of treatment and family therapy, keeping children out of foster care while a parent recovers.
Low-Barrier Therapy Scholarships for Rural Recovery
231 people in four rural Colorado counties applied for therapy scholarships that pay $125 a session and ask for no diagnosis and no proof of a problem.
Rural Treatment Court Built on Existing County Capacity
Danville and Pittsylvania County, VA run a five-phase treatment court on $209,000 a year, using the court, probation and clinic capacity they already had.
Peer-Led Jail Recovery with Free Outpatient Handoff
80% of participants in a rural northwest Kansas jail class were still in recovery a year later, on $500,000 in opioid settlement awards across two cycles.
Free Trauma Care Aimed at Veteran Substance Use
Sojourn Counseling uses Alabama settlement funds to treat combat and childhood trauma in veterans with EMDR and neurofeedback, at no cost to them.