Law Enforcement Programs

Law enforcement agencies across the nation are grappling with how to respond to the growing number of opioid overdoses in their communities. Many officers are now carrying naloxone, which saves lives and provides people an opportunity to consider seeking treatment services for their substance use. Many law enforcement agencies are also developing or supporting overdose follow-up programs that allow agencies to revisit the person and provide them treatment based information. Learn more.

Regional trainings for post-overdose response teams are offered throughout the state and listed here. These trainings are sponsored by the NC Office of Emergency Medical Services in partnership with the NC Division of Public Health. 

Learn more about law enforcement responses to the opioid epidemic.

Community Paramedic
Programs

Across the state and across the country, emergency medical response (EMS) systems are adapting their response to the opioid epidemic.  While the first duty of an EMS worker is to respond rapidly and resuscitate the victim of an overdose, many EMS systems are going beyond “respond and resuscitate” to embrace strategies that connect overdose survivors to treatment and recovery services.  Similar to “community policing” efforts, these strategies are often called “community paramedic” programs. Learn more from NCDHHS.

For example, the Guilford County Solution to the Opioid Problem (GCSTOP) offers follow-up visits to overdose survivors in an effort to connect them to treatment and address other needs.

Learn more about GCSTOP

Learn more about community paramedic programs here and here.

Regional trainings for post-overdose response teams are offered throughout the state and listed here. These trainings are sponsored by the NC Office of Emergency Medical Services in partnership with the NC Division of Public Health. 

For additional information or assistance, email Colin Miller at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. 

Emergency Department
Programs

Like EMS systems, Emergency Departments are rethinking the way interact with opioid overdose survivors. The North Carolina healthcare providers recently embarked on the Emergency Department Peer Support Pilot Project – an innovative effort that brings peer counselors into hospital emergency departments to connect overdose survivors to treatment, recovery, and harm reduction services.

Learn more about the pilot project

Learn more about emergency department programs here.