HCFR hopes to hire additional specialists to help those in overdose situations

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WMBF) - Horry County Fire Rescue is seeking to add two more harm reduction specialists to its team through opioid settlement funds.

The county’s public safety committee gave HCFR its stamp of approval Tuesday afternoon. The potential new hires would join a team of two that have already been making a difference in addressing the opioid crisis in Horry County.

“They’re changing lives every day,” said Assistant Chief of EMS Operations Ben Lawson.

HCFR’s current harm reduction specialists started in November.

Since then, the department said they’ve helped over 230 people, visiting them after overdoses and providing them with resources. But, agency leadership tells WMBF News they can’t tackle the growing opioid epidemic alone.

“The harm reduction specialists are completely overrun,” said HCFR Chief Joseph Tanner. “Honestly, if we had ten or fifteen, we’d keep them all busy today.”

Lawson said Horry County’s size makes the job especially challenging for two people, requiring the harm reduction specialists to make serious commutes to keep folks out of danger.

“It’s a large county, 1,200 square miles plus, and we have a lot of population,” said Lawson. “Where we may be responding to somebody in Socastee this morning, we may have a home visit in Little River this afternoon, and a home visit in Green Sea this evening.”

Officials said adding two more specialists would allow HCFR to station one in each of its four coverage areas. But, most of all, the department wants its specialists to engage with the county’s hundreds of thousands of residents.

“Any community event that we can get and be able to share our story and share the success that we’ve seen, and, you know, give somebody an opportunity to change their lives,” said Lawson. “We never know who we’re talking to, we never know what their background is, or what they may be going through in life, and we want to give everybody the opportunity to turn themselves around.”

The resolution will go to the county council next week. Lawson said after that, they should find out about fund approval in late March.

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