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Fire Chief Jonathan Westendorf details HOPE quick-response program, early outreach and Narcan distribution
Summary
Fire Chief Jonathan Westendorf told the Oct. 1 council meeting that Franklin’s six-month-old HOPE quick-response team has completed 35 visits and 65 contacts, helped refer residents into treatment and distributed naloxone through multiple channels; he described grants and a new Cordata information-sharing tool.
Fire Chief Jonathan Westendorf told the Franklin City Council on Oct. 1 that the city’s six-month-old HOPE program—Franklin’s version of a quick-response team (QRT) for substance-abuse follow-up—has made early progress connecting overdose survivors to services.
Westendorf said the team aims to contact people within three to five days of an incident or referral. He provided EMS figures he described as part of the program’s data set: in 2017 Franklin EMS recorded 24 opioid deaths, 231 opioid overdose patient encounters, 40 meth/unknown cases and a total of 593.5 milligrams of naloxone administered. Through Sept. 9, 2018, Westendorf said EMS data show 83 opioid overdose patient encounters, 48 meth/unknown cases and 149 milligrams of naloxone administered; he cautioned the numbers reflect EMS-only data and do not include law-enforcement or court records.
“We follow up on incidents from substance abuse,” Westendorf said. He reported that in the HOPE program’s first six months staff logged 242.5 hours and made 35 visits that led to 65 total contacts; those contacts included 11 people who entered outpatient treatment, seven who entered inpatient treatment and 12 others for whom the team was pursuing treatment referrals.
Lieutenant Katie Williams, a member of the outreach team, said the program distributes naloxone and has received supplies through Cardinal Health for first responders. “We also hand out Narcan,” Williams said, and the city has provided dosages to neighboring agencies and county partners.
Westendorf described additional support and funding: Franklin received a $30,000 Ohio Department of Health grant for a “HOPE Community Response Plan,” participates in the county-led Warren County Blueprint initiative, and is the only local provider of the DAWN program in Warren County; he said DAWN has supplied units for distribution and recorded three known reversals since July 4. The city has also started implementing Cordata, a grant-funded information-sharing platform Westendorf said will help coordinate care across agencies for up to three years while the grant is active.
Council members and the municipal judge praised the initiative. Judge Ron Ruppert said the court’s intensive supervised-probation program has graduated nine people since December and that coordination between courts, emergency services and treatment providers is important for tracking and long-term outcomes.
The presentation prompted no formal action; council members thanked Westendorf and other staff for the outreach work and for pursuing state and federal grant support.
