Medication-assisted treatment. Training on how to administer Narcan. Education and stigma reduction. These are just a few of the initiatives funded by Buncombe County’s opioid settlement money to address the local impact of the opioid crisis.
Tag: Community paramedicine
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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, […]
Buncombe shapes plan to tackle opioid crisis
Buncombe behavioral health manager Victoria Reichard noted that the county has received roughly $2 million of a more than $16 million lawsuit settlement, negotiated with pharmaceutical companies over their role in the opioid epidemic, this fiscal year. Of those funds, a county team has recommended about $518,000 in immediate spending.
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.
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.