Safety and hospitality ambassadors for a downtown Asheville business improvement district would be perceived as a welcome addition by some — additional “eyes and ears” on the street. But others aren’t sure that such a program is a priority.
Tag: Claire Hubbard
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Mental health-support specialist dispatched on some Sheriff’s Office calls
The co-responder unit from the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office and Emergency Medical Services will focus on mental health calls, welfare checks and involuntary commitments.
MAT access expands through hospital coordination
A new pilot program that started this summer helps people with opioid use disorder to initiate medication-assisted treatment in Mission’s emergency room, and then coordinates follow-up care.
Outreach team seeks to address complex emergency calls
On any day of the week, first responders in Buncombe County might be dispatched to this common scenario: A business owner or a bystander sees a woman on the sidewalk who is agitated, yelling, screaming, and pacing back and forth. Concerned, a bystander calls 911 to get this person help; it’s unclear whether she’s injured, […]
Community paramedics introduce medication-assisted treatment for opioid use
Buncombe County EMS has a new tool for helping an individual suffering from an opioid overdose: medication-assisted treatment, or MAT.
Year in Review: Community members discuss 2021 health concerns
While COVID-19 may have dominated WNC’s psyche in 2021, it was by no means the only health and wellness story Xpress told. Opioid abuse, mental health and self-care also emerged as major themes from the year.
Volunteers operate Code Purple emergency shelter for six nights
For more than half of nights in November, the Asheville-Buncombe Homeless Coalition called Code Purple: an emergency protocol, triggered when temperatures drop below freezing, to increase space in homeless shelters beyond normal capacity. But for all of those nights, people sleeping on Asheville’s streets had no officially designated place to go. The two Code Purple […]
Community paramedicine program addresses opiod overdoses
Buncombe County experienced a 147% increase in overdose deaths between 2015 and 2017, the most recent period for which data is available from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. According to Emergency Services, Buncombe averages six-to-eight deaths monthly from probable overdoses.
Community efforts seek to stop the rise in musician ODs during the COVID-19 pandemic
Asheville-area musicians and harm reductionists work together to reverse a troubling trend.