CARES Program Gives Belmont Commissioners 6-Month Report
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE - Belmont County CARES Program director Chad Zambori provided the Belmont County Board of Commissioners with the program's six-month report during Wednesday's regularly scheduled meeting.
"The CARES program is a community paramedicine program. The goal of the program is to hopefully keep people out of the hospital, reduce 911 calls, and reduce hospitalizations," Zambori said. "Along with that we go into people’s homes, meet them where they’re at, and hopefully fill any gaps that are needed, whatever that may be. Whether it be they don’t have a doctor at the present time, we have a nurse practitioner on staff that’s able to do an evaluation, write prescriptions, order home health, or hospice, if needed."
He added that there are many different facets of what the program does.
Zambori said that the program also deals with a lot of mental health issues throughout the community.
"We see from birth to death, A to Z. So it’s hard to say exactly what we do and put a finger on one thing. We try to fill gaps where it’s needed. We try to help out however it’s needed and be the last call that that person makes," Zambori said. "That’s not necessarily what happens every time, but we try to make sure that they get the answers that they need and hopefully help them out wherever they’re at."
In the past six months the CARES program has had a total of 952 interactions with 423 home visits, and 277 mental health interactions. It had 3,263 phone contacts totaling 11,934 minutes for a total of roughly 200 hours of phone calls.
Zambori added that the program received 842 referrals in the six month period.
"We receive referrals from many different agencies throughout the county. We work very closely with Adult Protective Services and Job and Family Services. We get referrals all of the time from Senior Services's Meals on Wheels drivers. We’ve had multiple referrals over these past six months because the Meals on Wheels drivers, they’re the people seeing these people every single day, and they’re able to see if there’s a certain change, or if there’s something going on," Zambori said. "We work very closely with them. We’re more than happy to go out if their driver sees any change in someone, and just to do a little check-in."
He added that the referrals sometimes amount to a bigger issue but sometimes amount to nothing.
Zambori said that he is grateful for the referrals because it puts the resident on the program's radar.
"We’re able to start having some sort of interaction with that person. So, we receive referrals from fire and EMS departments if they’re seeing multiple falls or a patient calls 911 multiple times, they’re able to refer them out to us and get the ball rolling of how we could help if there’s something that we can do from our side," Zambori said.
He added that as a community paramedicine service, he believes that the program is innovative for the Southeastern Ohio area. He added that the program is still continuing to look forward and advancing in the services it offers.
Commissioner Vince Gianangeli replied that when looking at the program's report he noticed that all of the CARES Program's interactions have increased by 50%.
He then thanked Zambori and the program for stepping up and handling the increased interactions and said that he unfortunately believes that the interactions will continue to grow.