SPOKANE, Wash. — Opioid overdoses in Spokane County are declining, and the Spokane Fire Department wants to expand its response efforts to continue the trend.
After peaking last year with an average of 220 suspected opioid overdoses per month, Spokane County has seen improvement. The numbers have declined since September, and so far this year, the county is averaging 156 suspected overdoses.
Spokane Fire’s behavioral response unit and the CARES team are working to help. The unit responds to emergencies, and the CARES team follows up to get people the help they need.
“It is dispatched through the 911 center and it responds out at the moment whether its a psychiatric call, a behavioral health call or an overdose,” said Battalion Chief Anne Raven of the Spokane Fire Department.
Data from the Spokane Fire Department shows that overdoses have been trending down over the past year. What might surprise people is that overdoses are affecting just as many housed people as unhoused people in Spokane.
“We have one social worker who is 100% dedicated to street outreach and following up with those who are unhoused, but about half of our overdoses are housed,” Raven said.
Spokane Fire says its behavioral response unit has helped refer more than 140 people to treatment over the last few months.
“It really is about getting people to the right treatment at the right time. A lot of the time, especially in overdoses, that time is right after they’ve had a catastrophic event like an overdose,” Raven said.
The behavioral response unit is also distributing Suboxone, which helps decrease the likelihood of overdosing for one to two days.
Spokane Fire hopes to bring in two people to work with the behavioral response unit full-time. Right now, the fire department uses rotating firefighter-paramedics to staff the unit.
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