WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The opioid epidemic continues to destroy the lives of people across the Cape Fear region, but Coastal Horizons is putting their team to work.
Since it formed five months ago, the Coastal Horizons Quick Response Team has worked to shutdown opioid addictions one by one.
“We partner with the hospital, the community paramedics. We partner with the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition on a lot of outreach visits and contacts. We partner with WPD, the police department,” said Kenny House, who is the Vice President of Clinical Services for Coastal Horizons.
The Quick Response Team is made up of two therapists and two peer support specialists. At a meeting Monday morning, local leaders met to talk about just how effective this team has been.
“An 83-percent success rate is what we look for in the government side of it. They’re getting us the numbers. They’re getting us the statistical information that we told them that we needed to make the pitch in Raleigh, that we’re going to need some additional funding for this,” said Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo.
Saffo says this epidemic is far from over. Since August, the QRT has helped 53 overdose survivors get treatment.
Representative Ted Davis agrees that the community needs help.
“The longer that we can go with the program, and the more positive results we can get, will certainly enable me in arguing up there why this should be continued to show the progress that we have made,” said Davis.
The QRT is a two-year pilot program, funded by the NC General Assembly.
“A lot of people have hesitation about treatment, and often times they need some extra encouragement and someone to kind of walk alongside of them,” said House.
House says it’s a constant work in progress, but the QRT can get results.
House says everyone at the meeting seemed to be happy with the QRT’s progress so far. He also says Coastal Horizons has a very high success rate with with all of their patients.