T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Belmont County CARES Program director Chad Zambori gives Belmont County Board of Commissioners an annual update of the program.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE – Belmont County CARES Program director Chad Zambori gave his year-end report to the Belmont County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday morning.

He informed the board that the program had 1,543 total patient interactions in 2025. The organization’s year included 745 in-person visits, 5,002 phone calls for 17,632 minutes, 208 mental health interactions and 1,013 referrals received.

Zambori added that the program partners with Belmont County’s Health Department, Mental Health and Recovery Board, Senior Services, Job and Family Services, Board of Commissioners, and various EMS agencies throughout Belmont County.

Zambori said that he didn’t break down the calls the program receives day by day, but said every day the program is answering calls.

“That’s the reason why I drive home with the radio off. I take that 20 minutes for some quiet time,” he said.

Zambori then spoke about Belmont County CARES Program nurse practitioner Ryan Gallagher’s statistics for 2025. Gallagher responded to 65 total nurse practitioner-related calls.

“That is whether it be home health hospice, working with insurance companies to get supplies in the home or medications ordered,” he said. “With Ryan [Gallagher] being here two to three days a week, these are patients that are high-frequency, that we’re seeing numerous times. They’re complicated patients, complicated situations that we’re dealing with. So it’s not like he sees this person one time, and it’s a done deal. So it’s pretty labor intensive.”

He added that Gallagher has delivered 68 overdose kits to residents in conjunction with the Health Department and Project Dawn.

“Anytime there is an overdose or a death in the county, we get alerted on our phone and we follow up, typically one time a month,” Zambori said. “In 2024, that number was 55 again. In 2025, the number was 68. So not only do we deliver Narcan, but we deliver CPR face pieces to families, we give them information on how to get help, not only for whoever it was that we may be there for, but also the family.”

He added that the program provides resources that the families are able to reach out to as well as leaving contact information for himself. The program also installed 48 smoke detectors throughout the county, and held 10 CPR training sessions.

Zambori said the program received a grant from the Community Foundation of the Upper Ohio Valley for $8,950 for portable vital sign monitors and bags to carry equipment.

“We’re now able to take those into homes with us,” he said. “We’re very thankful that we were chosen for that.”

Zambori mentioned that the program recently had an internship completed in conjunction with the Ohio State University. Emma Gazdik, an OSU student and part-time employee at Cumberland Trail Fire District, recently completed an internship by gaining 144 hours of in office and field experience.

Belmont County Commissioner J.P. Dutton told Zambori that every time he presents an update to the board he shows why the CARES program is so important, saying it’s important to note that the program regularly helps out volunteer fire departments that are short-staffed.

Dutton said that Belmont County isn’t the only county in Ohio that has a CARES program and it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of Tuscarawas County. He said the board saw what Tuscarawas County was doing and reached out and helped teach Belmont County what worked and what didn’t with its program to implement it in Belmont County.

“Just like Tuscarawas County helped us out, we’d be happy to do it for another county, because I think it’s been a resounding success,” Dutton said.