Don’t be too alarmed by the headline – someone will come when you call 911 starting later this year, but it may not be Emergency Services or law enforcement or a fire truck.
Instead, it could be members of the brand-new Adult Welfare Community Team that’s being set up by the county and will respond to events that don’t require medical specialists or law enforcement officers.
The move is meant to save Guilford County government and other local governments in the area money and time because trained medical professionals, fire fighters and sheriff’s deputies won’t be asked to handle relatively mundane “non-emergency” issues.
Guilford County government, at a cost of about $360,000, is establishing the team of social workers from the county’s Division of Social Services who will handle common recurring issues that aren’t life threatening and don’t require special skills.
The new Community Team will go out and handle the problem and that will allow emergency professionals more freedom to deal with true emergencies.
Elderly people who live alone, for instance, may call for help with simple tasks they can’t perform. Other people may call 911 because, say, the power is out.
In Guilford County, there’s a relatively small group of known callers who dial 911 repeatedly for non-emergency needs – which means that group generates a disproportionate number of calls and reduces the availability first responders have for true emergencies.
The new Community Team will collaborate with Emergency Services and the Guilford County Family Justice Center to respond to non-emergency needs.
The initiative will be funded in the 2023-2024 county budget that takes effect on July 1, but it should take some time to get the program up and running.
According to county documentation regarding the effort, ”The development of this intentional, collaborative approach is expected to enhance care for people who call emergency services for non-emergency situations and reduce the demand on EMS and Fire services.”
Sounds like a good plan; let’s see if Guilford County can actually get it up and running..
God, I hope it is run better than other ideas this group of feel good, fuzzy feelers have had.
More wasted tax dollars.
So they raise our taxes but cut back on what we are paying for. The County had best be prepared to get their butts sued off when there is a loss of life or limb due to a delay in providing assistance, not to mention the fact that we pay taxes for these services and I for one expect something for it. And don’t try to say they’ll responded in the event of a real emergency. Don’t try to tell me they will determine if it’s a true emergency to determine who to send. How will they do that? Oh yeah, they’ll use valuable miniatures getting information from a frantic caller before determining who to send. In an emergency, minutes can mean the difference between life or death.
I worked volunteer for the County rescue squad for a number of years in Cumberland County a while back. This, in my opinion, is a bad idea that has the potential for costing life or limb. Again, in an emergency, minutes can mean the difference between life or death.
This is an excellent idea. It frees up the people who need to be available for more serious needs.
More extorted tax-payer dollars available to buy votes from the faithful.