Uber Pilot Program Offers Free Rides to Rehab
Treatment can be expensive. In a world where drug rehab is one of the most needed community services, unfortunately, there are those who cannot afford it. Not everyone’s family has cushy jobs that offer benefits like health and dental insurance. Not everyone’s family has enough savings to foot the bill for a private rehab facility where their loved one stands the best chance of getting sober. No, most people don’t have that option available to them. In fact, a lot of people who are addicted are coming from average, middle-class families, most of which have hemorrhaged all their savings in order to help their addicted loved one. Or worse yet, they come from impoverished backgrounds or a family of addicts who don’t have two nickels to rub together. Either way, a lot of addicts don’t have the means to get the help they need and when their name is finally called on the waiting list for the closest state-run facility, they have no way to get there. No car, no ride, no money for the bus, so what are they to do? Luckily, the famous “ride sharing” app Uber, in partnership with Goodwill, have come up with a solution.
In this new program, Uber is going to be offering free rides for addicts going to and from treatment. It’s currently being piloted in Chesterfield County, Virginia. You don’t need a smartphone either because Goodwill is acting as a sort of dispatch center that coordinates the addict’s transportation. The Uber Health Program is backed by a local state grant, which I believe is a great use of the allocated money. Otherwise, addicts either have no way to get to treatment once they’re willing to go (and there’s a very small opportunity to get them into treatment at this point because that window can shut as fast as it opened) or they have no ride home. This will lead them to have to hit the streets in order to figure it out how to get home—the very place that may have gotten them into trouble in the first place.
Chesterfield is a rural county so it’s a perfect place to test this program because bus service often requires a wait of 30 minutes or more. Dawn Missory, Chesterfield County’s alternative transportation manager said, “Because of the ruralness of our county, that’s how long it would take. An on-demand service in the county, I think, would be very beneficial to the citizens, especially the elderly, the low-income and the disabled.”
The way the program works is that an addict who needs a ride either to or from a detox or treatment center sets up an online profile with Goodwill. Once the addict needs transportation, Goodwill contacts Uber drivers who then bring the person to their pre-approved destination.
Goodwill spokesperson John Dougherty said, “[The program] has allowed Goodwill to understand: if we could take away that key barrier, how could we change the trajectory of the lives of those we are trying to help?”
I think this is a novel idea and I’m glad we’re putting Uber to some good use beyond taking wasted bar hoppers home on the weekends. I’m a fan of anything that gets people to arrive into treatment safely. At least we’re trying to take away one more barrier that may prevent a person from turning their life around.
Sources Used:
https://www.thefix.com/free-rides-treatment-courtesy-uber-goodwill
