Ilwaco wins new round of funding for response team
Published 5:09 pm Sunday, September 6, 2026
ILWACO — New funding awarded to the City of Ilwaco will continue supporting a program launched last year that is aimed at providing more appropriate care to people in distress while easing the strain on local law enforcement, ambulance services, dispatchers and hospital staff.
City councilors at their most recent meeting in late August voted to authorize Ilwaco mayor Eddie Hillard to sign a grant funding agreement with the Association of Washington Cities (AWC). Ilwaco will receive $76,318 through the organization’s Alternative Response Team Grant program, with the funds going toward employing a trio of part-time responders.
The grant program is a partnership between the AWC and the Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA), which provides funding to the organization’s member cities to create new programs within the different models of alternative response — such as mobile crisis teams or law enforcement diversion programs for low-level criminal offenses.
The grant program has been funded by state budget dollars through the HCA since 2022 and has awarded nearly $9 million to Washington cities. Ilwaco was one of 13 cities selected to receive funding from the program for the current year-long period, which runs from July 1 of this year through next June.
It’s the second year that Ilwaco has won funding through the grant program; the city received $134,044 to assist with developing a community paramedicine program aimed at serving “high utilizers of the pre-hospital and hospital systems by providing high-quality health care inside the patients’ residence, as well as developing and providing community-based education to the general public.”
The funds allow the city to employ a community outreach coordinator, community navigator and emergency medical technician (EMT). Staffing for the response team is drawn from the Ilwaco Volunteer Fire Department, as well as volunteers and community grassroots participants. The three positions are classified as part-time, non-exempt city employees.
The response team’s collective duties, according to the city, include referral intake, contacting patients, making home visits, providing medication barrier checks, conducting fall-risk and home-safety reviews, helping patients navigate resources, providing referral support for behavioral health, coordinating transportation, data entry, monthly reporting, and coordinating with city staff, Ocean Beach Health and other community partners.
Last year, when councilors approved the first round of funding from AWC, Ilwaco officials noted that people who lack medical insurance or the ability to leave their residence for medical appointments tend to utilize the 911 ambulance system for routine healthcare or to treat chronic and complex medical conditions.
About 20% of all 911 calls are related to mental or behavioral health or substance use issues, according to the American Psychological Association.
Those frequent requests for ambulance services, the city said, “creates congested 911 dispatch center phone calls, high frequency emergency vehicle responses for non-emergent needs and patients seeking long-term healthcare in less appropriate settings,” such as an emergency department.
“The goal is to reduce law enforcement [and] ambulance responses, 911 calls and emergency room visits.”
