Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services

WHYY    June 10, 2019

Every morning at 8 o’clock, social worker Shane Randall gets an email telling him which addiction-treatment facilities have available beds that day.

But Randall doesn’t work for a rehab facility, or for a homeless-services organization. He works for the Philadelphia Fire Department.

His job is a part of a new partnership between the Fire Department and EMS and the city’s Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services to create an emergency-response unit specifically designed to handle overdoses. Officials here say it’s the first of its kind in the country.

Read the entire article here: New Philadelphia emergency unit responds to overdoses in Kensington