The city of Columbia is collaborating with MU Health’s department of emergency medical services to change how overdose calls are handled in Boone County.
The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration awarded Columbia a grant of about $500,000 annually between 2023 and 2027. The money will go towards training a new team of paramedics specially equipped to handle overdoses in the community.
Alec Mundle, the city's Health Program Coordinator, said community paramedics will shadow first responders and stay with patients on the scene of the emergency longer than resources normally allow.
“Paramedics are super busy,” Mundle said. “When they get dispatched to a call, they get to the call, they stabilize the scene and then they have to go to the next call.”
Charles Doss manages the program for MU Health, and said the hospital system has been hoping to implement it for some time.
“In the case of an overdose where we give someone naloxone and reverse the overdose, then that's when we would kind of step in and see if they want access to those longer term care options and those treatment options,” Doss said.
Community paramedics will discuss further treatment options with patients based on their needs, possibly including enrollment in rehabilitation programs.
Now that the city and MU have signed a contract confirming their partnership on the program, Doss says they’re looking to hire certified paramedics and will put up job postings soon.
There were nearly 2,000 drug overdose deaths in Missouri in 2023, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that there had been 2,000 overdoses in Boone County in 2023. It should have said nearly 2,000 overdose deaths in the entire state last year. It also identified Alec Mundle as working for MU Health, not the City of Columbia.
