Grant funds training for first responders

PORT ANGELES — Nearly two dozen emergency medical technicians and other first responders gathered at Field Arts & Events Hall for a daylong course aimed at strengthening their response to mental health and overdose incidents — and to their own and their fellow workers’ well-being.

The training — called COAST: A Roadmap for Fire/EMS — was sponsored by the Port Angeles Fire Department to help its workforce and those new to the field better manage crisis calls that are rising in number and complexity.

Port Angeles was one of nine agencies in the state awarded a behavioral health innovation grant funded through the state Health Care Authority and administered by the University of Washington School of Social Work’s Behavioral Health Crisis Outreach Response and Education — known as BHCore.

T