RUSSELL, Ky. – A new Situation Table – a model that facilitates multi-agency interventions for those at risk of experiencing a crisis – will launch in Boyd County this month following a recent training program led by Operation 2 Save Lives (O2SL) & QRT National.
The two-day training took place from Oct. 23-24 at the King’s Daughters Medical Center Pavilion in Russell, and was delivered by Mike Botieri and Dan Meloy of O2SL & QRT National. The training was coordinated in partnership with the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (PAARI) and the Kentucky Opioid Response Effort (KORE).
Boyd County is the second of four site trainings funded by KORE. The first site was the Powell County Situation Table, which was trained in August and launched later that month.
Thirty-three participants attended the training, representing 10 agencies, including community health, emergency management, family services, behavioral/mental health and health education.
The training focused on equipping the attending agencies with the skills and lessons necessary to form a Situation Table. A Situation Table is a unique, risk-based rapid triage model that brings together multiple human service providers to address situations where individuals and/or families are facing a specific threshold of Acutely Elevated Risk. Situation Tables are comprised of representatives from public safety agencies, public health agencies, service providers and other community partners in participating communities.
Through the model, an individual or family at Acutely Elevated Risk would be referred to the Situation Table for consideration of possible intervention before a crisis occurs. The Table participants will collaborate and discuss the identified risk factors and possible services. Upon reaching a consensus, the Table would identify a team of agencies to attempt to locate the individual or family and connect them to services.
The Boyd County Situation Table – the fifth in Kentucky – will launch on Nov. 14. Situation Tables also launched in Louisville, Paducah and Perry County in 2022. Two additional Situation Tables will receive training and mentoring from O2SL & QRT National in the coming months, in collaboration with PAARI and KORE. By early 2024, seven Situation Tables will be working in Kentucky.
“We are grateful for participants’ engagement with the training and their commitment to launching this Situation Table as another resource for their communities,” Botieri said. “We appreciate KORE and PAARI for their continued partnership and look forward to returning to Kentucky for additional trainings in the coming months.”
The HUB Situation Table model was developed in Canada by Global Network for Community Safety (Global Network), a Canadian-based firm that focuses on innovations to improve community safety and wellbeing across Canada and in the U.S. Through the O2SL & QRT National – Global Network partnership, the organizations work cross-border to collectively provide multi-agency community responses to address issues of marginalization, for pre-crisis identification and crisis interventions, while creating pathways to care and support. Their combined expertise and suite of services – based on internationally recognized best past practices – help provide communities with tailored responses to meet their current needs, and the ability to rapidly adjust to an evolving landscape of risk factors including those around substance use disorders, mental health disorders, and related social health issues.
There are over 150 Situation Tables across Canada and the U.S.
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