Saturday, April 27, 2024
4/27/2024
The “Expanding EMS Capacity in Alaska’s Rural Copper River Region” project seeks to 1. Expand the training and capacity of local EMS resources with special focus on mental and substance use disorders in emergency situations; 2. increase from zero to five the number of active local Community Paramedics; 3. increase from zero to eight the number of local EMS personnel trained and qualified to serve on a Crisis Response Team within a Mobile Integrated Healthcare model of EMS service; 4. increase from zero to five the number of local EMS personnel trained and qualified to administer buprenorphine under medical direction 5. recruit, train, and retain local State Certified EMS providers to increase the number of personnel actively responding to medical, mental health, and substance use disorder emergencies throughout the Copper River Region. The project will focus training active EMS personnel in Motivational Interviewing, Trauma Informed Care, Crisis Response, Verbal De-escalation, CAMS Suicidality framework, Psychological Trauma in Emergency Treatment, Mental Health First Aid, Naloxone training and distribution, as well as completing state-approved EMT recertification courses. This project will provide critical training materials for 15 training workshops, varying from four to 144 hours as well as EMS equipment vital to train EMS personnel and increase the capacity of EMS in the region. By the end of the project period, the unduplicated number of people trained will be 30. In the rural Copper River region, EMS personnel serve an area of 20,000+ square miles with a full-time population of around 2,600 residents and nearly 100,000 visitors in the summer due to tourism and fishing. The resident population’s racial demographics are 23% Alaska Native, 69% Caucasian, and 8% other. The majority of residents are between 18 and 64 years of age (65%), with only 24% under 18 years of age and 11% 65 years or older. Major health problems include cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, various cancers, poor nutrition, edentulism, substance abuse (e.g., alcoholism, methamphetamine, and a growing OUD challenge, including prescription drug abuse and heroin), STIs, and orthopedics. Barriers to health care access include poverty, the region’s very rural frontier Alaska location, extreme weather conditions, lack of public transportation, and a complete lack of hospitals, specialty care, or after-hours medical care within a 140-220 mile radius. On average, local EMS services respond to 280-380 911 EMS dispatches annually. The entire region is served by only one centrally located Full-Time paid ALS ambulance crew and one volunteer ambulance crew serving the southeast extremities of the region along with approximately 24 first responders spread throughout the region. This project will provide essential training for providers who will serve 100,000 people annually in the Copper River Basin.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
