How Operation Shielding Hope is changing our community

Published 1:30 am Thursday, May 14, 2026

LIKE MANY COMMUNITIES, the opioid crisis has taken a heavy toll on Port Angeles.

In 2023, that toll was being felt not only by families and neighbors, but by our police and fire services as well. The Port Angeles police and fire departments were responding to an average of four overdoses per week.

More than 60 percent of overdose survivors were declining further care after being resuscitated, and virtually none were being referred to substance use disorder services, despite those being available in our area.

By year’s end, Clallam County ranked second highest in the state for overdose fatalities.

That same year, the City of Port Angeles received notice from the state that Opioid Settlement funds would be allocated to address the crisis.

While many other jurisdictions relinquished control of the settlement funding to larger counties, our police and fire departments saw this as an opportunity to try something different. They were determined to ensure these dollars were retained and invested in our community.

They began conversations with local substance use disorder professionals, peer support specialists, behavioral health clinicians, recovery navigators and harm-reduction experts. From that work came new partnerships and a new response model called Operation Shielding Hope.

With support from City Council and funding in place, Operation Shielding Hope was launched in 2024 as a coordinated partnership between police, fire and community organizations focused on reducing overdose fatalities, preventing repeat overdoses, and connecting survivors with care at the point of crisis.

Here’s how it works. When a 911 call reports an overdose, the city’s specialized response team (known as the Post Overdose Response Team) is dispatched alongside traditional emergency services. Once the scene is stable, that team assumes the lead, freeing 911 responders to address other calls.

If the survivor is transported to the hospital, the Post Overdose Response Team goes too, advocating at their bedside and ensuring a warm handoff to substance use or behavioral health professionals before being discharged.

If the survivor declines transport, the Post Overdose Response Team will stay on scene to talk, listen, educate and, with consent, connect them with available services.

Each month, the Post Overdose Response Team convenes with our co-response partners to review cases, share lessons learned and strengthen collaboration. They also provide HIPAA-compliant follow-up information to the first responders on scene, closing the loop and letting them know the outcome of the people they helped.

Within the first few months of implementation, we learned that more than 78 percent of survivors accept help when the Post Overdose Response Team arrives on scene and facilitates a warm handoff to substance use and behavioral health services. When that doesn’t happen, that number falls to just 3 percent.

Twelve months after launching the program, total overdose fatalities in Clallam County decreased by 61 percent, and our ranking dropped from second to 13th in the state.

An unexpected outcome of Operation Shielding Hope has been the impact on our emergency service personnel. At the peak of the crisis, compassion fatigue and burnout were real. Crews were responding to the same addresses and the same faces, week after week, with little signs of change.

Today, morale is high. Our crews know that when they arrive at an overdose, the Post Overdose Response Team is ready to step in and connect the survivor to long-term help.

No single program can solve every challenge, and there is still much work ahead. But I am proud of our staff and partners for their commitment to this effort, and for continuing to refine and improve it. Operation Shielding Hope is referenced across Washington as a “best practice” example for rural, resource-limited communities. To learn more, please email the Port Angeles Fire Department at pafire@cityofpa.us.

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Nathan West is the city manager for Port Angeles. He can be reached at nwest@cityofpa.us.