photo by: Journal-World

The Douglas County Commission will hold their Wednesday meeting at the Douglas County Public Works building, 3755 E 25th St.

Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical will soon give county leaders an update on the Mobile Integrated Health program, which reaches out to people who frequently call 911 in non-emergency situations and helps connect them to other resources they can use instead.

At the Douglas County Commission meeting on Wednesday, LDCFM will give a presentation about how the program has been going since it was introduced last winter. As the Journal-World reported, the program accepts referrals from first responders who go out to a call and think the person could benefit from the program’s resources and education. After the initial medical response, the two-person Mobile Integrated Health team follows up with the person and offers them non-emergency services at no cost.

The program can deliver a variety of non-emergency services, including chronic disease management, wound care, resource navigation and more, according to a memo in the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting.

The agenda also includes a presentation highlighting several success stories from the program. One of them involved a person who made 24 calls to 911 for panic attacks in the four months prior to the program’s intervention. After the team made five visits and provided education on available resources, the individual has not made any further calls.

Other situations that the program addresses include calls for falls and “lift assists,” where people need help getting up. The presentation says that these types of calls made up 15% of LDCFM’s calls for service in 2023, and it also mentions a patient who called 911 for help getting out of bed 14 times; the team helped solve the problem by finding a new bed frame that allowed the person to get out of bed more easily.

No action will be taken on the presentation, which is intended for informational purposes only.

In other business, commissioners will:

* Consider a proposed bridge replacement project on North 700 Road, or Route 460, over Captain Creek in Palmyra Township and approve a contract with Finney & Turnipseed LLC for engineering services at a cost not to exceed $75,550.10.

The County Commission’s business meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the Douglas County Public Works training room at 3755 E. 25th St. The meeting will also be available via Zoom.