MARTINSVILLE – The Martinsville Fire and Police Departments are teaming up to help combat prescription drug abuse.
In March, Martinsville firefighters decided to start spending a couple hours on the third Saturday of every month going door to door in the city, checking people's smoke detectors and installing new ones if necessary.
This past weekend, police officers followed along and spoke to people about the ongoing opioid epidemic and how residents can help combat it.
"Our community working with us is our best opportunity for us to address some of these issues," said Martinsville Police Chief Sean Dunn.
Last summer, the police department did a door-to-door campaign to raise awareness about Zika.
Dunn said that was so successful that when the city started seeing a spike in opioid and heroin overdoses at the end of last year the department decided to include opioid awareness as part of the door-to-door Zika campaign this year.
"We figure based on last year, every Saturday we'll be able to hit at least 100 households and hopefully many more than that," Dunn explained.
Teaming up with the fire department increases the chance that residents will open their doors and listen to what the officers and firefighters have to say.
"When you see the fireman and the policeman there together, and you see them with a rotary member and someone with the health department, you're, like, 'Wow, they're teaming up. This is legit. This is real. They want to help me out,'" said Martinsville Fire Chief Ted Anderson.
"They're more receptive to opening that door."
Aside from making people more aware of the opioid epidemic, the police department hopes this will also make people more aware of how they can get help.
"We don't want to bombard the citizens with too much information at once, but we are here to help them obtain the correct information if they ask for it," said Martinsville Police Department Capt. Robert Fincher.
For prescription drug abuse help, call Piedmont Community Services at (276) 632-7128 or the after hours line at (888) 819-1331.