Community Outreach and Public Education ideas.............

[PRPGfirerescuetech]

Hi all-

So, ive been put into an interesting fulltime position of being responsible for public outreach, provider, and community education.

There is a tremendous amount of talent driving through here, so i thought I would throw this out there.

Any thoughts on interesting community outreach initiatives?

Im currently looking at...

1. Connecting with area cardiology offices to identify key "at risk" patients, to provide layperson CPR to their families.

2. A fall prevention initiative, connecting patients associated with frequent falls to a DME company to provide and install fall prevention devices.

3. Development of a Public Relations initiative which expands on the inter-relationship between EMS and the public.

There is much more ahead, however im looking for new ideas.

Anyone?

[mobey]

I have always been a fan of the "Vial of life" or something similar.

If you are not familiar, it is basically a vial placed in the refrigerator that has a med list, DNR if applicable, and diagnosis of current illness. It is really handy in the live-alone elderly who really have no idea of thier past med history.

[spenac]

Those are nice but often they forget to update.

[WolfmanHarris]

What's your budget/boundaries? Nova Scotia EHS has some interesting projects going on out on the islands near Digby. They do regular status checks on some patients with diabetes and other chronic conditions with an eye to prevention (since they're a long ferry ride away from the hospital). Or there's Community Referrals by EMS (CREMS) that Toronto's doing to get patient's who require help from the community and public health more than they require EMS.

CREMS Overview

JEMS article on Digby Nova Scotia

Then of course there's the standard CPR classes in the community, visiting elementary schools to teach them about calling 911 and High Schools about drunk driving.

[rock_shoes]

Some of the best outreach programs I've seen involve CPR instruction. Ideally every high school student would be taught CPR to a health care provider level as a graduation requirement.

[VentMedic]

1. Connecting with area cardiology offices to identify key "at risk" patients, to provide layperson CPR to their families.

You may be duplicating some services.

Many hospitals do provide this service especially if they have a cardiac program and community wellness programs that their patients are referred to. Families of patients who get take home AEDs, AICDs and LVADs or other equipment are given lots of extra training.

I would advise training EMS providers to be better prepared for the many different devices out there so they can better serve the public.

2. A fall prevention initiative, connecting patients associated with frequent falls to a DME company to provide and install fall prevention devices.

Are you going you use a Case Manager to get all the additional qualifications and paperwork approved? Although the devices may be necessary, these are very expensive requests for an older person on a fixed income to shell out the cash from their own pocket. DMEs are not cheap nor is a Case Manager who may only have limited time available with an already full load.

3. Development of a Public Relations initiative which expands on the inter-relationship between EMS and the public.

Good idea but it depends on the type of service you are and how you approach the public. How much is your budget? I would still check what services other agencies offer and not duplicate but maybe reinforce or expand from them.

Educating people in the community about alternative transportation for medical appointments is always a good place to start and a question many handicapped or elderly people may ask. Unfortunately, even ambulance services that specialize in transport can not come up with one alternative besides a taxi when asked.

[Timmy]

I’m doing 3 months of community nursing at the moment. Were based out of a community health centre. I know it doesn’t have anything to with EMS but…

Current we have:

-Blood Pressure Checks

-Diabetes Nurse

-Community Interlink

-District Nursing

-Case Mangers

-Mental Health Team

-Citizens Advice Buru

-Cardiac Rehabilitation

-Physiotherapy Services

-General Rehabilitation

-Community Health Promotion

-Podiatry

-Foot Clinic

-General Health Checks

-Dietitian

-DOM/Midwifery

-Occupational Therapy

-Special Projects

And so on…

I you want any more info on any of these areas let me know.

[PRPGfirerescuetech]

Timmy,

It might. Specifics on BP checks, Community Health Promotion, and General Health Checks when you get a free minute, and thanks for your time.

PRPG.

To everyone else, thanks for your responses. Anyone else have any ideas? I am doing a vial of life, concentrating on assisted living and retirement homes. Still working on the details.

Some great ideas. Once this is up and running full bore, ill repost with details.

[Timmy]

BP Checks – RNs go out into the community to places were people gather i.e. Shopping Centre, Local Fetes ect. If they find someone to be hypertensive they get a little slip of paper with a referral to a doctor who will bulk bill to medicare. People are more likely to have the follow up if they know it’s all free. Depending on the age of the patient and how the patient goes with the medication District Nursing and dietitians may be sent in to offer advice on medication management, general health support/monitoring, exercise and diet. It’s not unusual to go out and refer 30 people to the doctor and have to follow up around 5 or 6.

Community Health Promotion – Similar to BP checks, they may run an awareness week on prostate cancer, may run a fun run for diabetes, walk a thon for MS, handing out booklets to at risk people for certain illnesses, go into school and talk about safe sex/teen pregnancy, run support groups for Parkinson’s patients, cancer patient, career support groups ect These groups get together and talk about there conditions, the nurses may provide information on new treatments, symptom management, they may even go out and have a coffee. Normally CHP will liaise with Community Interlink who will organize a few hours of respite for cares to come together and have a break.

General Health Checks – Again BP, BMI, cholesterol checks. If you’re a smoker they may check your lungs ect.

Everyone refers to everyone lol, its not just one service that does everything there all interlinked and there’s great communication between doctors, allied health, other services and nursing. If a certain service doesn’t have funding for a certain thing they’ll refer to someone who knows how to work the government.

[crotchitymedic1986]

I would look specifically to your area of coverage, and find the need. Maybe you have a higher infant death rate, maybe more CRF patients, maybe a lack of AED's and citizen CPR training. The problem with these programs is that they tend to be the first to get the budget axe when times get tough, so I think it is important to create meaningful / measureable change. To site one example of this thinking:

Maybe you have a stretch of hwy or a specific intersection or country road where the majority of your traffic fatalities occur. The past statistics are easy to obtain from you 911 center or your own call records. Maybe something as simple as a new redlight, a stop sign, or a sign that educates the public to the number of deaths that have occured one mile up the road, will significantly decrease deaths, which you can measure and say, "we saved 22 lives in 2009". Or maybe it is a busy intersection where lots of accidents occur (but not fatalities); you can work with your city or county to change that intersection, and again say "we decreased auto accidents by 40% at this intersection by just changing the sequence of the red light (instead of sequence of red- to left turn green arrow, to green light, to yellow, to red -- you change it to red, green, yellow, red, left turn green arrow). If not a redlight, maybe it needs a four way stop, or better signage.

I would look at greatest needs in my community, weigh the cost of improvement (remembering that you may get buy in from national organizations to help you if you have a good plan (Cancer, diabetes, stroke, cardiac societies --- universities, drug companies, etc), weigh complication of how many internal and external partners i need to make it happen, and how measurable the goal is. Start small, build your way up.