Dallas’ Opioid Response Team is quietly squeezing more impact out of every overdose call. Even as suspected opioid overdoses ticked up last year, the small crew that pairs Dallas Fire-Rescue medics with recovery peer specialists is reaching more survivors and families after 911 calls. The team is logging thousands of follow-up attempts, and while it still connects with only a slice of the people it tries to reach, staff say each successful knock can mean a Narcan kit, a treatment referral, or a family that now knows how to respond when a crisis hits again.
According to the Dallas Observer, Dallas Fire-Rescue handled 1,136 911 calls for suspected opioid overdoses in 2025, a slight rise from 1,123 in 2024. The Opioid Response Team (ORT) followed up hard on those numbers, making 1,497 post-overdose outreach attempts last year compared with 1,405 the year before. Direct contacts climbed as well: the team reached 165 patients in 2025, up from 110 in 2024, and connected with 130 friends or family members for overdose-prevention info and Narcan training, a big jump from 36 the prior year. “Those numbers, while they’re small in proportion, they are huge as far as impact,” EMS Section Chief Chris Chiara told the paper.
How the team works
The ORT pairs a certified recovery support peer specialist with EMS staff and sends them back out within days of a 911-reported overdose. The team offers Narcan training on the spot, helps navigate treatment options, and links to basics like housing or transportation when that is what is blocking recovery. The Recovery Resource Council notes that the model is built around a quick, trauma-informed window, usually 24 to 72 hours after an overdose, to meet people where they are and lay out practical choices instead of ultimatums.
Why outreach often misses people
Program leaders say a lot of the missed connections come down to logistics rather than a lack of effort. The address tied to a 911 call might not be where someone actually lives, people may still be hospitalized or moving from place to place, and some households simply do not open the door to strangers, even if they are there to help. That mix of unstable addresses and closed doors helps explain why so many outreach attempts translate into relatively few direct contacts. In response, the team has tweaked its tactics, including piloting weekend follow-ups, to catch people when they are more likely to be home. The city’s opioid response page describes the ORT as one piece of a wider approach that also leans on community education and resource navigation.
National trends and what they mean for Dallas
Federal provisional data released in January suggests the broader overdose crisis may be shifting. Overdose deaths fell through August 2025 in 45 states, a trend experts have linked to wider naloxone access, expanded treatment, and changes in the drug supply. The Associated Press reports that provisional Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates put overdose deaths at about 73,000 in the 12 months ending August 2025, down from roughly 92,000 a year earlier. Local officials say those national gains could amplify Dallas’ outreach efforts, but only if funding, treatment capacity, and harm-reduction tools keep up with need on the ground.
Other local steps, hotline and Narcan access
Dallas County and partner agencies have been widening the safety net around the ORT’s work. Dallas County Health and Human Services operates an Overdose Response program and a regional Overdose Prevention Hotline that launched in 2024 and now connects residents and clinicians with treatment options, harm-reduction resources, and poison-control expertise. Hospitals and nonprofits across the area have also pushed broader Narcan distribution, including early vending-machine pilots that place the reversal medication in neighborhoods where overdoses are most common…