The Fort Worth Fire Department has received new funding to expand its homeless intervention program by boosting its efforts to reduce opioid overdoses.
Cowtown’s city council approved a new round of taxpayer spending for the department’s Homeless Outreach Programs & Enforcement (HOPE) unit, totaling $157,505.64, according to NBC 5 DFW. The money will help equip the department to respond to opioid-related emergencies.
Firefighter Chuck Moreland, a member of the HOPE team, explained his personal investment in the program. His 22-year-old son had suffered from addiction for four years before dying of an overdose.
“My son’s first relapse was a fatal one, and it cost him his life in March of this year,” said Moreland, per NBC 5.
Jim Davis, chief of the Fort Worth Fire Department, said that the HOPE team is figuring out how to allocate the taxpayer money, wanting to spend on resources like more personnel for the HOPE team, training materials, new response vehicles, and overdose prevention kits containing naloxone, a drug made to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. The Food and Drug Administration recently approved the drug for over-the-counter purchase to battle the ongoing opioid epidemic, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
“Naloxone is not the cure-all for addiction, but what naloxone does is it creates a bridge, and that bridge is to tomorrow. And tomorrow might be that day that that person’s willing to get help, and that help might just work for that person,” said Davis, per NBC 5.
Davis explained that the team will conduct additional outreach after the holidays regarding CPR, naloxone, and “difficult conversations” that might be had with residents and their loved ones.
“This is a community problem that we’re seeing, it’s going to take a community solution,” said Davis.
Illicit drugs have long plagued North Texas, especially since fentanyl came on the scene. In Dallas, criminal drug activity has been rampant. The City clocked 8,643 drug violations as of December 21, marking a nearly 2% bump over such offenses during the same period last year.
