My curiosity was piqued almost immediately when city officials announced plans for a new team that would respond to behavioral health crises around Salem. That work was a longtime dream of local service providers, and followed years of pushes from city leaders for tougher action on homelessness – something I as a reporter keep track of. The REACH Team – Rapid Engagement, Assessment and Community Health – is a six-month pilot and partnership between the Salem Fire Department and Marion County Health and Human Services. It launched in January. The new team is made up of a paramedic and EMT from the fire department and a mental health specialist from the health department. The city spent $200,000 to launch it, as part of a bigger package to address community homelessness, substance use and mental health. Marion County has allocated $130,868 to REACH through the end of 2026. I’d already learned from experience that one of the best ways to evaluate the impact of such a program is to spend a day with those doing the work.  Last December, I worked with my colleague Abbey McDonald to produce a closeup look at other recent city investments: an expanded police homeless outreach team connecting with people in camps and a crew that balances humanity with cleaning up trash from campsites and dumps. A morning with the city teams prioritizing humanity, patience at Salem’s homeless camps My ride-along with the police team proved an incredibly valuable experience. Interviews with the team conducted in the seats of an all-terrain vehicle and conversations with longtime campers at Wallace Marine Park showed me the work and care that goes into building long-term relationships that can lead to positive life changes. Beyond the initial story, those memories helped contextualize other city and safety reporting I’ve done since.  So when the REACH Team launched, I knew that reading memos from the city council wouldn’t cut it.  At the January press conference launching the team, I asked Salem Fire Chief David Gerboth about the possibility of doing a ride-along later – I wanted the team to get some experience before I asked for anecdotes and results, but I wanted eyes on the work they were gearing up to do.He agreed, and I sent over a completed request form for the ride-along and picked a day and time. The fire department spokesman asked me to watch a required video on the medical privacy law HIPAA, which later helped guide which information to include in my reporting. I spent one day in March and another in May with the team. Salem Reporter published the story I wrote about those days last week.  One person at a time, new team eases homelessness, crises on Salem’s streets Both days I spent with REACH were comparatively quiet to others they have. I saw only one true dispatch to a 911 call and a handful of outreach efforts or follow-ups with people. “Quiet” was a word I did not say out loud while with them, due to a longstanding superstition it would invite chaos. The team told me several times that the lack of activity was the “curse of the ride-along.”  The relative calm of my ride-alongs meant I had more time to talk with each of them about themselves, their thoughts on REACH’s work and why they felt compelled to be part of it.  They all shared a mission to help people who’ve been failed before by systems such as healthcare, housing or emergency response. They signed up because they’d seen people fall through the cracks and miss out on services time and time again. They wanted to be part of the solution. “When people are people, they’re not an abstract anymore, you can’t help but have empathy,” Amanda Palmer, an alternate EMT for REACH, told me. “And when people go from abstracts to people, that’s when the magic happens.” Amanda Palmer, an alternate EMT for REACH, said she’s become a more well-rounded responder by working on the team. “It really has also reinforced, like meeting people where they’re at and helping them in the ways that they feel comfortable letting you help, and kind of how humbling it is to really listen and learn and understand how to help people in various different circumstances,” she said. (HAILEY COOK/Salem Reporter) Standing on the sidelines as the team worked was a great reporting and learning experience, where I saw examples of complicated situations relating to homelessness and substance use that were hard to witness. But the conversations I had with the team during quiet moments continue to stand out to me. Working with people sleeping on sidewalks or experiencing suicidal thoughts can be difficult work. It’s also highly politicized and the subject of ongoing public debates. Local tensions over how to address homelessness have been high over the last year, with business leaders wanting quicker action to fix livability and cleanliness issues and service providers calling for more empathy and solutions to root causes. Despite the noise and expectations, the team focused on delivering the best care they could  to those falling through the cracks between the healthcare system, law enforcement and behavioral health services. Scott Alt, left, paramedic; Nate Okada, middle, mental health associate; and Chris Okland, right, EMT. (MADELEINE MOORE/Salem Reporter) That included a woman who the team visited during both my ride-alongs, over a month apart. Both times, I stood back and observed the team’s mental health specialist steer the conversation with the woman.  In May, I stood with Chris Okland, the team’s lead EMT, watching the woman talk with another REACH team member and someone from Be Bold Street Ministries. After telling me the team had already visited the woman around 15 times before, Okland said he hoped that day was the day she would accept help. His optimism and hope for the woman struck me. Others on the team spoke with me about how working day after day with difficult, traumatic or frustrating situations could easily grind them down, so staying present and leading with humanity is important.  It also put a face and voice to the often used example of those who providers and government teams face obstacles in reaching people who are chronically homeless, experiencing overlapping medical and behavioral health conditions and have built a routine they use to survive that they don’t want or know how to leave behind. That moment with Okland stands out to me now as a sign of how holding onto patience and care matters to people on all sides of their work. As REACH and the homeless team continue to be top of mind for the public and local government, it is important for our reporting that we know how these teams work by observing them in action. If I don’t take the time to sit next to them while they work, either at a table or in the back of their SUV, how can I tell readers what’s being done to help the people they pass on sidewalks downtown? I’m fortunate that these experiences don’t just ground me personally, but inform and inspire the work I do as a reporter. Contact reporter Madeleine Moore: [email protected]. Make Salem Reporter your trusted source for accurate, independent local news – every day. Stay informed and connected to your community. Subscribe today. The post EDITOR’S NOTE: Behind Salem Reporter’s ride-alongs with the REACH Team appeared first on Salem Reporter. ...read more read less