Rural emergency medical services training - the rural EMS mental health and substance use capacity initiative is a maine-based initiative aimed at providing a statewide and comprehensive approach to…

Rural emergency medical services training - the rural EMS mental health and substance use capacity initiative is a maine-based initiative aimed at providing a statewide and comprehensive approach to increasing maine's EMS workforce; building the capacity of EMS professionals to meet the needs of patients with mental health and/or substance use orders; and improving EMS agencies' capacity as vicarious trauma-informed organizations. The overarching and primary goal of the initiative is to support maine's EMS workforce in meeting the changing needs of maine residents, while also protecting the mental health and wellbeing of EMS personnel. The initiative is being led by united ambulance training center, in partnership with other EMS agencies across maine's six EMS regions to reach as many EMS personnel as possible, even within the state's most rural areas. Maine has the highest rurality rate in the U.S., with 60.9% of residents living in areas designated as rural. Historically, maine has been characterized by its majority of older adults (22.6% of the population is 65 years old or older). However, its demographic landscape has been shifting to a younger, more transient population, with 76.9% of the population being below the age of 65. Mental health and substance use issues within the state are on the rise, with nearly a quarter of maine adults experiencing lifetime depression and/or anxiety and an overdose death rate of 37.3 per 100,000 population. These changes are altering the nature of care needed from EMS professionals. However, over the past few decades, the EMS system in maine has faced staffing and funding challenges that have made IT difficult to respond to the state's changing needs. The initiative aims to address these needs through three primary goals. First, the initiative will recruit and train EMS students to increase their awareness of EMS as a career path and support them in obtaining relevant state licensures. IT is anticipated that the initiative will train around 150 students per year, for a total of 295 EMS students trained as EMS professionals throughout the initiative. As a result of the training, IT is expected that each year around 80 students will complete the national exams for licensure, for a total of 162 newly licensed EMS professionals over the course of the initiative, with at least 75 expected to enter the maine EMS workforce. Second, the initiative will improve the mental health literacy competencies of maine's EMS personnel, through assessments and seminars, to care for patients with mental health and/or substance use disorders. The entirety of maine's EMS workforce will be invited to participate in an initial assessment of their mental health literacy skills, the results of which will inform the development and implementation of a training module and series of seminars. In addition, a system will be developed to support the referral of patients with mental health and/or behavioral health issues to a community paramedic to facilitate the connection to appropriate behavioral health care services. Third, the initiative plans to develop and facilitate a learning collaborative for EMS agencies to build their capacity as vicarious trauma-informed EMS organizations. Over the two-year initiative, IT is hoped that at least 4 EMS agencies will participate in a self-assessment of their capacity as vicarious trauma-informed organizations and at least 2 agencies will document their experience of implementing organizational changes to increase their capacity.