Mental health and substance abuse crisis DE-escalation training - gordon-wascott EMS is a small rural EMS service located in douglas county, wisconsin which has been designated as a medically…

Mental health and substance abuse crisis DE-escalation training - gordon-wascott EMS is a small rural EMS service located in douglas county, wisconsin which has been designated as a medically underserved rural area since 07/12/1994. Gordon-wascott EMS is governed by the towns of gordon and wascott with a combined population of 1400 with a service coverage area of 299 square miles. We have a main interstate( US highway 53) going through our service area which brings US additional traffic which often results in crises calls. Yearly, we respond to many patients who suffer from mental health and or substance abuse disorders and would like to ensure that we have a safe scene when responding to these crises situations, as provider and patient safety are a priority at gordon-wascott EMS. Gordon-wascott EMS , proposes to give our EMS personnel in-depth training on the care of our patients who suffer from substance abuse and empower our prehospital providers with the skills to DE-escalate in mental health / substance abuse crisis situations. Our plan includes bringing in mental health professionals to conduct the training sessions. Gordon-wascott EMS recognizes that our personnel are in need of proper training in order to ensure that we can maintain safety for our prehospital providers and provide a high level of care for our patients. We will conduct a minimum of 3 training sessions on the topics of mental health and substance abuse within our project period and invite area volunteer first responders to the training at no cost to their departments. We will collect data on how many instances of mental health and substance abuse responses and the number of times DE-escalation skills were needed during the project.