Numbers can be deceiving when gauging the success of the Dallas Opioid Response Team’s efforts. The number of overdose calls the crew responds to continues to grow and has been alarmingly high for each of the three years the team has been in operation. Given how uncontrollable the opioid and fentanyl crisis in the U.S. can seem, it’s a wonder that anyone can find rays of hope to suggest that any possible solution could be working.
In 2023, Dallas Fire-Rescue teamed with Fort Worth’s Recovery Resource Center to create the Opioid Response Team (ORT). In the days immediately following an opioid overdose reported through 911, a group of select staff, including EMS personnel and a certified recovery support peer specialist, will attempt to make contact with the person who had just received life-saving treatment.
In 2025, DFR responded to 1,136 911 calls for suspected opioid overdoses. That’s up a small bit from 2024, when 1,123 overdoses were called in. In 2025, 1,497 attempts were made to contact the person who had been treated for an overdose, an increase over the 1,405 attempts in 2024. But it’s the next couple of vital statistics that can play tricks on the mind…