City Of Charleston Awarded $800K For Quick Response Team

From the City of Charleston:

The City of Charleston has been awarded a total of $800,000 through two grants to continue outreach work conducted by the City’s Quick Response Team (QRT). The QRT visits individuals at their homes within 72-hours of an overdose with the goal of connecting individuals with substance use disorder to treatment. The funding will allow the QRT to continue its lifesaving work for an additional three and a half years.

“The outreach work conducted by the QRT offers a compassionate response to those who have overdosed. Our team’s ability to connect individuals with support plays a vital role in addressing the opioid epidemic in Charleston,” said Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin. “This funding will not only allow us to continue this work for another three and a half years, it will also allow us to improve and expand the QRT’s outreach work.”

The City was awarded a $600,000 three-year grant through the Federal Department of Justice. An additional one-year grant of $200,000 was awarded by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Services Bureau for Behavioral Health.

The QRT team includes an EMS provider from the Charleston Fire Department, a Charleston Police Officer and a trained recovery coach. On each visit, the team aims to connect with the individual, assess their needs and develop a personalized referral plan for treatment. The grant funding will allow the City to hire a full-time QRT Coordinator, improve data collection and develop new partnerships with local treatment centers.

This press release was produced by the City of Charleston. The views expressed here are the author’s own.