In year three, leaders call the Quick Response Team’s fight against the Opioid epidemic a success

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - In the three years that the Opioid Quick Response Team has been in existence, their success rate has increased every year.

In the first year, 80 percent of the people they came in contact with went through treatment. It was 90 percent in year two.

“It’s real people,” said Kenny House, Clinical Director at Coastal Horizons. “Those numbers represent real people and those people represent families.”

City council learned Tuesday night that the coronavirus pandemic has led to more people falling victim to opioids.

“People who are suffering from depression and anxiety, people who are struggling with drug use,” said House. “All of the avenues for help are more difficult to access and in that kind of environment, it’s a recipe for further disaster, further drug use.”

But House says, despite the uptick, the Quick Response Team (QRT) has also started to see a rise in people asking for help. This is just one reason why they’re calling the program a success.

He says they’ve really focused on outreach, especially in Black communities and in young people.

“This is community wide; it’s not just one thing, it’s not just having treatment available,” said House. “It’s also having a strategy for a community to prevent those problems from developing to where they have.”

Leaders of the QRT believe their efforts have paid off. But, the pandemic has added additional challenges, which they are trying to meet and overcome in an effort to save lives.

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