Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Emergency Response topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Spokane Fire expands social-work CARES team and behavioral response to reduce 911 use
Summary
Spokane Fire Department said an expanded non-emergency social-work team and a co-responder behavioral unit have reduced repeat 911 calls and are starting people on buprenorphine in the field as part of a treatment-focused strategy.
Chief Oberg of the Spokane Fire Department said the department expanded its CARES nonemergent social-work team using opioid-settlement dollars and staffing changes, increasing licensed social workers from one to four to follow people for weeks or months after referral.
“Prior to a referral from CARES, we track 911 usage for that particular individual six months before and six months after the referral — and we see a 72 percent decrease in 911 usage,” Chief Oberg said, citing internal tracking of repeat callers.
Oberg described CARES as a follow-up and navigation team that receives referrals from field crews and connects individuals to services, housing and treatment. The department also runs a Behavioral Response Unit (BRU) staffed by a Spokane firefighter-paramedic and a Frontier Behavioral Health clinician. The BRU responds to 911 calls for psychiatric, alcohol- or substance-related incidents and may proactively listen to calls to identify cases where their team can make a difference.
Oberg said the BRU’s goals are to divert people from emergency departments and connect them to appropriate resources, including buprenorphine (Suboxone) initiation when clinically appropriate. She emphasized Narcan (naloxone) remains essential to reverse overdoses but is not a long-term solution: “Narcan saves lives... but it’s not the solution,” she said. Buprenorphine can “stop or slow the withdrawal” without producing a high and is used to stabilize patients and reduce immediate return to use.
The fire chief said the expanded CARES and BRU teams can now reach encampments, initiate medication-assisted treatment and provide follow-up where previously capacity was constrained. She described the units as part of an outreach-first approach intended to reduce unnecessary emergency-room visits and improve health outcomes for people with substance-use disorder.
