Opioid recovery response team expanding in the Upstate to address growing need

GREENVILLE, S.C. (WSPA) – The opioid epidemic is a crisis affecting thousands of people across the Upstate. First responders in Greenville are expanding resources to tackle the dilemma further.

The Greenville City Fire Department houses the opioid recovery response team, which is now in its second year of service. First responders with the department told 7NEWS they were approved for more than $600,000 to expand this year.

The funds come from the more than $360 million-dollar opioid settlement South Carolina received in 2022.

Lieutenant Brian Creswell, who serves as the Greenville City Fire Department’s opioid program specialist, told 7NEWS they’ll be adding a fourth full-time person to their opioid recovery response team as well as a peer-support specialist to help them reach more people with substance abuse disorders.

“They may not have any friends, and they may not have any family, so our job is to step in and to be that friend for them, and to be that accountability partner for them and support them through this,” said Creswell.

He said they’ll increase their response to overdose cases, and get more people on the path to recovery.

“Each program is tailored to that patient, and during the follow-up, we establish what their needs are, and we determine if it’s something as simple as they need to be set up with a long-term counselor, then we can refer them to those resources,” Creswell also said.

2022 statistics from the South Carolina Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services ranked Greenville County in the top ten for highest drug overdose deaths.

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