Wilson County Department of Social Services (WCDSS) is a state-supervised, county-administered agency that provides a wide array of social services to the Wilson community. Many of the families the agency serves present with substance use disorder/opioid use disorder (SUD/OUD) as well as co-occurring mental health disorders. Accessing services can be difficult, which causes delays in much needed treatment. To address these concerns, WCDSS transformed its child welfare services into a trauma-responsive program with the capacity to screen, assess, and provide in-house clinical services to all children and youth. The agency is an active member of the Wilson County Substance Prevention Coalition, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization formally organized in 2007 as a response to the growing substance use issues in the county.
Wilson County is located inland from the coastal area of North Carolina. Considered a rural area, Wilson County is also designated a Health Professional Shortage Area in mental health, dental health, and primary care. The county has a proximity to highly traveled transportation routes, including I-95 and US-264, giving ease of access to both the east coast and the mountains and leading the county to being designated as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.
The Wilson County consortium is composed of the County of Wilson, North Carolina (Department of Social Services, Health Department, and Emergency Medical Services), Wilson County Substance Prevention Coalition, Wilson Police Department, Eastpointe, and Area L Area Health Education Center (AHEC). These entities cross many sectors: human services, health care (including public health, emergency services, and managed care), law enforcement, and substance use.
The overarching goals of the Wilson County RCORP-BHS initiative are:
- Address structural- and systems- level barriers to improve rural residents’ access to quality, integrated SUD and other behavioral health care services.
- Improve the quality and sustainability of rural behavioral health care services through supporting rural health care providers to offer coordinated, evidence-based, trauma-informed SUD and other behavioral health care services.
- Improve the capacity of the behavioral health care system to address rural community risk factors and social determinants of health that affect the behavioral health of rural residents.
To address structural and systems level barriers to improve access to SUD/BH services, we:
- Conducted a needs assessment and developed strategies based on the results.
- Conducted training for first responders and direct service providers on de-escalation in crisis situations, compassion fatigue and burnout, and co-occurring disorders and polysubstance use.
- Expanded peer and recovery support through hosting Recovery Coach Academies at the local college.
- Hired a System of Care Coordinator to ensure that SUD/BH services are integrated, coordinated, and accessible.
To improve the quality and sustainability of BH services, we:
- Provided trauma-informed training and supplies to Wilson County schools and provided scholarships to an afterschool program for middle schoolers.
- Provided Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) and crisis intervention training to first responders and direct service providers.
- Coordinated with police department and college Wilson Area School-Based Health Centers (WASH) to become a treatment referral point.
To improve capacity to address community risk factors and social determinates of health, we:
- Provided education to local funeral homes on the dangers of smoking embalming fluids.
- Provided community presentations on the Hope Alliance, our treatment referral agency, located within the police department.
- Developed a marketing and communication plan on prevention and harm reduction.
- We sent 10 individuals to in-treatment facilities through our work with Hope Alliance.
Building and maintaining community partnerships is crucial to our success. We have been fortunate to build upon some established collaborative efforts happening in Wilson County including:
- An established Opioid Multidisciplinary Team, which brings together a myriad of partner agencies who meet monthly.
- An established Substance Prevention Coalition with nearly 100 partner agencies.
- A local collective action non-profit, Wilson Forward, which brings partners together to find solutions to local concerns. Outcomes from our grant work are included on the three-year plan for the Wilson Wellness Collaborative, one of Wilson Forward’s initiatives that addresses Health and Well-Being in Wilson County.