The small town of Greensboro seemingly rises up out of the farm fields of Caroline County, Maryland. In the back parking lot of a local church, hope rises too, inside a mobile health unit.
"They want someone who's been there, who's walked in their shoes, who can make it feel okay when people are nervous or have a lot of barriers in starting care," said Jessica Magidson, director of the Center for Substance Use, Addiction, and Health Research at the University of Maryland. A study, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, is looking at how this program is working.
"Unemployment is very high over in this area. We have a lot of people that transportation is just almost nonexistent," said Roger McKnight, who is the administrator of the mobile treatment unit.