Pickaway County, a rural community south of Columbus, Ohio, doesn’t typically experience natural disasters. Instead of focusing on this type of response, the Pickaway County Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) has used the county assessment to identify community needs and steer unit activities. Transportation, overdose, and suicide were identified as top concerns through the assessment.
“We sought to build trust in the community,” said Unit Leader Tiffany Singer. “To help to combat the stigma around substance use disorders, the unit is doing outreach, harm reduction activities, and connecting people to treatment and recovery.”
At the start of this initiative, Singer put out an email to stakeholders, letting them know of the need in the county and asking who would like to be involved. The unit is now partnering with recovery agencies and other local public agencies with formal MOUs in place.
Through these new relationships, the unit has recruited new volunteers, including those with access and functional needs and those in active recovery. These new volunteers are helping the unit to reach into parts of the community that have traditionally been harder to reach.
The unit is now doing weekly outreach, every Tuesday from 12:00 to 2:00 pm, with the goal of reducing death and stigma. Singer uses the health department’s mobile unit and is accompanied by three MRC volunteers, one nurse and two in a peer support role. A plain clothed officer also stays near the mobile unit. Each week an MRC team travels to a different part of the county, including areas with those experiencing homelessness or areas where overdoses have occurred. The team provides Naloxone, hygiene kits, fentanyl test strips, first aid kits, flyers, and cards. In small cities, the team may set up outside a local store and also do blood pressure checks.
“We started outreach in July and have gotten 10 people in treatment,” said Singer. “It’s inspiring. These volunteers want to give back. We have more interest in volunteering than we can accommodate.”
In addition to sparking a connection with its volunteers, this outreach has also helped the unit to build relationships with more stakeholders and community members.
“We’ve established relationships with senior centers and those supporting different access and functional needs,” said Singer. “In case of a disaster, we now have contacts within specific communities.”
To help prepare and train its 30-50 volunteers, Pickaway County MRC holds monthly meetings featuring a speaker or training at each session. Volunteers have been trained in first aid and Stop the Bleed. The unit will be using NACCHO’s Operational Readiness Award, to provide CPR training, including train the trainer. An upcoming meeting will feature Mental Health First Aid. Volunteers have requested Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) and the unit may do a session on Youth Mental Health First Aid.
Additional upcoming unit activities include a POD exercise with Ohio Christian University in the fall, and community outreach including participating in a Colors of Hope event focused on suicide prevention later this spring and a large pumpkin show in the fall.
