GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. — When there's an emergency calling 911 is top of mind.
Oftentimes, calls to first responders aren't actual emergencies. Many of those calls can come from the elderly.
That's where the new Adult Welfare Community Response team steps in.
When someone calls 911, EMS will show up. Once they assess that it's not a true emergency, they'll contact the team that's made up of trained social workers.
Non-emergencies could be someone needing help getting into a wheelchair or getting dressed.
"There are situations where people live alone, and either they are not familiar with the resource or they haven't connected with the resource that's able to provide a service that they'd be able to come out and provide in-home aid services provide basic hygiene, light housekeeping services for them," said Laurie Jones with Guilford County Department of Health and Human Services.
"This team will be housed at the Family Justice Center. They will live there and be a part of the Family Justice Center and we know as a result of that our relationship and connections and problem-solving will amplify because that's what happens in good collaboration," said Guilford County Family Justice Center Director Katherine Johnson.
The new team is a partnership between Guilford County EMS, the Family Justice Center and DSS. The idea is it'll take some of the pressure off EMS workers who need to respond to true emergency calls.
Justin Hargett with Guilford County EMS said they get called to non-emergencies quite often. Sometimes, it's because people don't know who else to call.
"It's really difficult especially for us at EMS because we see these folks and we want to connect them to the resources and oftentimes for EMS, we gotta go to the hospital or help you make your primary care appointment and we don't get to help them with their total care needs and so this is really about connecting them to the total care," said Hargett.
The team has worked two cases together so far, reducing their call load by an estimated 500 calls.
The team has already helped reduce call loads by 500 after working on two cases.
Guilford County commissioners allocated nearly $400,000 dollars to help fund the new team.
It plans to start responding to calls by the end of the summer.