Across W.Va., Localities Look For New Ways To Help People In Crisis

From Inside Appalachia and West Virginia Public Broadcasting by Mason Adams and Kelley Libby, July 8, 2025

This story originally aired in the July 6, 2025 episode of Inside Appalachia.

This story includes discussion of suicide and substance use disorder. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.

In Huntington, West Virginia, Cabell County’s quick response team, or QRT, meets in the upper floor of an Emergency Medical Services building five days a week. Huntington is a small city of 45,000 people on the western edge of West Virginia.

On a weekday last fall, four team members small-talked and joked around. The tone seemed light, especially given what the quick response team does: checking-in on folks who’ve recently had an overdose, or who are at high risk for one, in a city that’s known nationally for its struggles with opioids.

“I think what brought it to the forefront probably is 2016 we had an incident where we had about 28 overdoses in about a four-or five-hour period, and that made international news,” Connie Priddy, a registered nurse with Cabell County EMS and program coordinator for the quick response team, said.

Priddy said EMTs saved all the folks they encountered that day, but a local doctor soon realized that none of the individuals who overdosed were referred for follow-up resources or treatment. Without support, they could lapse back into substance use disorder, potentially encountering law enforcement and ending up in jail or the emergency room.

“[We] finally realized we had a really huge gap, and we weren’t going to arrest our way out of the problem,” Priddy said. “So we were looking for a different way to do things.

They used an idea that came from Ohio that seemed to be getting results — a quick response team, consisting of first responders, health officials and a peer specialist who has experienced mental health or substance abuse challenges. They take a proactive approach and often are called to respond for emergency calls involving people with substance use disorder or experiencing mental health challenges. Cabell County applied to create its own quick response team and received a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. In 2017, the Cabell County QRT launched.

The first year, they saw a 40% reduction in overdose calls — 700 fewer calls than the year before. But, there was a learning curve.

“Even in 2017, I think we had in our mind what we thought was a stereotypical client,” Priddy said. “And we quickly realized that we could go into an area that somebody might be living in an abandoned house with a dirt floor, and then the next minute, we’re going into a million-dollar home. So, I think we really sort of quickly got away from stereotyping.”

Those sorts of lessons are important stepping stones to improving response. West Virginia faces a steep challenge when it comes to addressing behavioral health issues. In a 2023 survey, 38 percent of West Virginians reported symptoms of anxiety or depression, about six points higher than for the U.S. as a whole, according to KFF, formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation. The state’s drug overdose death rate was also nearly three times higher than the national average in 2021.

Those higher rates of mental health challenges and substance use disorder have strained first responders across the state, who already have limited resources. Most of the time, the people responding [to crisis calls] are law enforcement officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians, who aren’t always trained to deal with these kinds of problems. So people tend to end up in jail, or they cycle in and out of crisis.

Programs like the quick response team and crisis intervention teams are intended to train first responders to respond more efficiently and empathetically and to divert more folks away from the criminal justice system, toward treatment. Quick response teams (QRT) focus more on substance use disorder and connecting people with treatment, while crisis intervention teams (CIT) aim more at mental health challenges and training first responders on de-escalation and directing individuals toward resources. They’ve shown enough promise that both models have been replicated throughout the state, but they still have trouble attracting sustainable funding.

Both programs use peer support specialists, who are team members with lived experience who are in recovery from substance use disorder or mental health challenges.

“In recovery, every path is different, but we have one common thread: We have disease that wants to kill us,” Sue Howland, Cabell County QRT’s peer specialist, who has lived experience with substance use disorder, said. “I’ve walked through hell twice. I don’t want to go back. I’m having too much fun living, okay? So basically, it is for me to show an individual that you can live a life without being dominated by ‘King Addiction.’”

Read more from Inside Appalachia here.