North dakota FM ambulance rural EMS program - emergency medical service (EMS) providers across the US continue to face multiple challenges as they strive to 'answer the call' in 911 medical emergencies

The overall purpose of the samhsa FY 2024 rural EMS training program as proposed is to recruit, train and maintain EMS personnel across the rural and frontier project area that will competently and compassionately serve rural populations. These providers will be cognizant and proactive in their ability to address patients with substance abuse disorders, particularly as they CO-occur with behavioral health and/or mental health conditions and prior trauma and will be knowledgeable of relevant recovery care options. As a recipient of consecutive samhsa rural emergency medical services training grants, sanford health's EMS education (SHEMSE) training center has been working diligently to address these challenges across the existing project's eleven rural and/or frontier partners in the northern midwest. We will use this experience to add a remote, rural area in idaho to enhance their EMS responses, availability to technology, and mental health/substance abuse training. In addition, a proposed partnership with the white earth reservation and its ambulance service is proposed. This collaboration will enable training which will include suboxone treatment in EMS/CP interactions, post-traumatic growth, and harm reduction service delivery for the services that respond to the residents of the reservation and its neighboring communities. Over the 2-year project timeframe, sanford health EMS education (SHEMSE) and its partners will meet these challenges in part through the training and certification of 40 unduplicated emts, 4 paramedics, and up to 4 community paramedics (CP). This will incorporate targeted training on substance use disorders, CO-existing SUD and behavioral challenges, and include an awareness of trauma-informed, recovery-based care for people with such disorders in emergency situations. Ongoing training will also target existing EMS providers, to enable them to maintain licenses and certifications relevant to serve in their respective EMS agencies. This ongoing certification training will be augmented with focused coverage of mental and substance use disorders, together with options for trauma-informed recovery-based treatment options. The FY 2024-2026 EMS training project will implement a structured, iterative monitoring and data collection process to drive ongoing project management and to strengthen short- and long- term outcomes. The project director and project guidance team will oversee an adaptive management approach that utilizes required data collection and reporting.