How Denver Health is helping inmates with opioid addiction get treatment

9 News

Jails, historically, aren’t known as places of drug rehabilitation. But Dr. Sasha Rai, the Director of Behavioral Health Services for the Denver Sheriff’s Department of Health Services, is providing people in the Denver jail that option. Dr. Rai launched a Medicated Assisted Treatment (MAT) program in Denver jails a couple of years ago with a small team of nurses and case managers from Denver Health. Last year, Rai’s team put 916 inmates on Opiate Withdrawal Protocol.