Kailee Shores – Chattanooga Times Free Press, Tenn.
(TNS)
Hamilton County is launching an overdose prevention team through Hamilton County EMS to deliver reversal medication to individuals in need and connect those with substance use disorders to recovery resources.
County Mayor Weston Wamp announced the team at a news conference Wednesday, saying it is the first of its kind in Tennessee.
The team will be made up of outreach groups including a paramedic to administer medication and a certified peer support specialist, with lived experience in recovery, to provide ongoing support.
This is a medication-assisted treatment bridge program so that we can bring much needed medications, care, understanding, empathy to those that need it most,” said Dr. Ron Buchheit, medical director of Hamilton County EMS. “Our goal is to set the standard of care so that other counties across the state can provide the same high quality, well-directed care to those patients that need it most.”
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Christy Cooper, Hamilton County administrator of general services, said the idea behind the initiative is not just to respond.
“We want to create a path of lasting recovery,” she said.
The announcement follows a year of improving overdose prevention numbers reported from the Chattanooga Police Department and other community partners.
The department reported a 32% decrease in overdoses last year, from 652 in 2023 down to 471 in 2024, but that decrease is nowhere near as substantial as the decrease in fatal overdoses in the city.
Incidences where an individual died from an overdose fell 49%, from 165 in 2023 to 84 in 2024. The numbers, included in the police department’s 2024 annual crime report, draw from the computer automated dispatch through the Hamilton County 911 center.
(READ MORE: Naloxone stopped nearly 2,500 ‘very preventable’ deaths in Chattanooga area in 2023)
Chattanooga Police Chief John Chambers attributed the data cliff to community partners and law enforcement working together.
“There has been an enormous response from the health care community, the law enforcement community, just first responders as a whole, right? EMS, fire department, police department,” Chambers said. “Even like academia, right? There has been a concerted effort across the board to educate people, as well as provide life-saving measures.”
Now, first responders are aware that naloxone, an antidote to opioids, does not have any adverse effects if used on someone who isn’t actually overdosing. Several years ago, officers were hesitant to use the opioid reversal drug if they weren’t certain the person was overdosing for liability reasons.
“Now, we also know, even if you don’t know what’s going on, if you try to wake somebody up and you can’t wake them up, you Narcan,” Chambers said. Narcan is a brand of device used to administer naloxone.
Chattanooga Harm Reduction, a volunteer outreach organization that focuses on distributing naloxone, received reports of 1,695 overdose reversals in Southeast Tennessee from the naloxone kits the group distributed over the course of 2024. The feedback on overdose reversals is all voluntary, Robert Childs, a volunteer with the organization, said by phone during a conversation in January.
“We think the impact is even greater than that, but … people will only tell us what they feel comfortable telling us, and a lot of people we may never see again,” Childs said.
(READ MORE: In Chattanooga, an old newspaper box now holds free overdose reversal kits)
The volunteer group distributed 27,449 two-dose naloxone kits in the metro area to people who use drugs or recently used drugs in 2024, Childs said.
“If I come across someone who uses drugs, and they use with other people, the best person to give those people naloxone as well as other harm reduction supplies is that individual,” Childs said. “They’ll trust them … they trust their social network.”
Childs emphasized meeting people where they are.
“Think of it like smoking,” he said. “It just takes a while to quit. Think of it like trying to reduce your sugar intake. It’s just going to take a while. You’re going to have return-to-sugar events, return-to-tobacco events. We’re going to try and work to keep people alive till they’re ready for what’s next, however they define it.
Contact Kailee Shores at kshores@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659.
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