BOONE COUNTY, W.Va. — Several weeks into the start of field operations for the newly-formed Boone County Quick Response Team, the program coordinator is reporting some success.
“We have called on several clients,” Kelley Massey recently told MetroNews.
The Boone County QRT which went fully operational on Oct. 20, 2020 is one of the latest to get up and running in the Mountain State.
It was three years ago when the first QRT in West Virginia was formed in Cabell County, a team that worked specifically in Huntington.
The idea was to follow up with people who have overdosed on drugs within 24 to 72 hours offering recovery support and social service referrals along with information about and connections to treatment options.
Teams include a first responder, a peer recovery support specialist, a law enforcement officer and a member of the faith-based community.
In Boone County, reports to the QRT are generated through the Boone County Ambulance Authority.
“We actually pick up our information packets and we go to them,” Massey said.
Additionally, the Boone County QRT takes referrals anonymously about people with substance use disorder or alcohol dependencies through a referral line at 1-866-800-0778.
“If they have someone that they’re a friend of or a family member or just an acquaintance, we don’t want them to wait until they would happen to overdose, we would prefer that they call us ahead of time and let us go try to help their friend or family member,” Massey said.
In June, the state Department of Health and Human Resources provided funding to expand QRTs into Boone County along with Berkeley County, Marion County and Mingo County with the goal of reducing the number of fatal and non-fatal overdoses in those counties and statewide.
Prior to that, QRTs were operating already in more than 20 other counties.
The Boone County QRT is run in coordination with Brighter Futures, a medication-assisted treatment program that’s part of Boone Memorial Hospital.
“My goal is to be able to — in one year — say, ‘We have reached this many people,'” Massey said.
“I would love to have a figure to throw out there so people can actually see a number and then show them that with this program that we’ve reduced the number of overdoses in our county.”