Among the cultural shifts some believe have led to public health crises such as our region’s substance abuse epidemic and other “diseases of despair,” is the rise in isolation and loneliness. Fewer people feel as though they have a sense of being surrounded by a community. Fewer people feel as though they have any support network, anywhere to turn for help.

It is important, then, that the Washington County Behavioral Health Board finds support in developing a Crisis Response Team to complement the Rapid Response Team that partners with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and Hopewell Health Centers to help those struggling with drug addiction get the help they need.

Our community must be willing to remind those suffering in the grip of this and other personal crises that they are not alone.

“We want to create a community team that supports mental health,” said Dustin McKee, director of policy for the National Alliance on Mental Illness for Ohio. “Crisis response teams are volunteers that go places after something terrible has happened whereas intervention teams have a specific training to de-escalate and prevent further crisis.”

Astute readers will have noticed the word “volunteers.” There will be an informational meeting Nov. 14 conducted by National Organization for Victim Assistance trainer Roger Roberts; and then a three-day training series in February. Let us be certain this effort does not lose steam, as has happened with previous attempts at a coordinated crisis response effort.