Bamberg County gets opioid relief grant for free treatment access

Bamberg County is using opioid-settlement money to make treatment free, add overdose-prevention services and sharpen its tracking of overdose deaths and drug trends. Residents with opioid use disorder can turn to Bamberg Specialty Services at 185 McGee Street and Padgett Family Practice at 526 North Street for no-cost medication-assisted treatment, counseling, therapy and education.

The county says the services are meant to be confidential and judgment-free, a key detail in a rural area where stigma, transportation and limited service options can keep people from seeking help. Low Country Health Care System, which is partnering in the effort, says it operates multiple locations across the region and offers open scheduling, expanded hours and after-hours phone contact with care teams.

The funding comes from the South Carolina Opioid Relief Fund, which is administered by the South Carolina Opioid Recovery Fund Board under the South Carolina Opioid Recovery Act. Bamberg County has framed the work as a public-health response that combines treatment access, public-health tracking and outreach meant to reach residents before addiction turns fatal. The county says the rollout is happening in phases through 2026.

Another part of the grant will go to the Bamberg County Coroner’s Office for advanced toxicology equipment. County officials say that would speed in-house drug testing, improve cause-of-death reporting, shorten turnaround times and help identify emerging drug trends faster, giving Bamberg County a clearer local picture of what is driving overdoses. Coroner Shawn Hanks has said the county has seen several opioid deaths and that the toll is rising locally.

Public outreach is also part of the plan. The county says it will use billboards, radio spots and materials distributed through schools, along with additional advocates focused on substance-abuse prevention and family support. South Carolina’s opioid treatment dashboard already tracks diagnosis, treatment initiation and treatment retention for Medicaid-enrolled or uninsured people who receive care through county or emergency-department pathways, offering one way to measure whether Bamberg County’s free-treatment push is actually bringing people into care and helping them stay there.