Make the right call

On the 357th day of The Last Ambulance / La Dernière Ambulance project, let's talk about where we need to start if we're going to turn the emergency prehospital care system around.

We need to start with the children.

We need to get them started in kindergarden -- the way they do in Australia.

We need to teach them when and how to call for help in an emergency. We need to teach them what's a big emergency -- the kind you need to call 9-1-1 for help.

And we need to teach them what types of things they should report to an adult but not 9-1-1.

We need to teach them in a way that makes perfect sense for them. In a way they can go home and teach their parents, their siblings and their grandparents about when it's time to call 9-1-1.

We need to teach them how to report the essential information they'll need to help guide emergency assistance to their location.

We need to recruit someone like Luigi Davoli, MPS, CFSL, ACFSA to set up a Make The Right Call program. Although in Davoli's case, we'd be re-launching something he started 30 years ago with C?te Saint-Luc EMS.

Davoli is now a Platoon Chief with Mississauga's Fire and Emergency Services (MFES). Since starting with CLS EMS, Davoli says his career has taken him down his chosen path.

“I have been blessed to be a full-time career firefighter with Mississauga Fire and Emergency Services. I am coming up on my 25th year with MFES and it still feels like day one. I have risen through the ranks to my current role as Platoon Chief. Besides my official roles within the department, I have taken different roles. I was a shift training instructor (STI) for medical training and shift coordinator. The role had me teaching staff our various medical protocols and onboarding staff to new equipment. As a shift coordinator, I was responsible for planning schedules for the rest of the STI team to go out and teach. Further to scheduling, I would be part of larger conversations to enhance our medical protocols with our Training Officer in charge of the medical program and medical director.”

I asked him about the program he started.

Hard to believe but almost 30 years ago, you were already preaching the importance of teaching children how and when to use 9-1-1. Why was it so important for you back then ?

"When calling for help, it can be confusing. There are a lot of grey areas on whether something constitutes an emergency. This is even more true for a medical situation. Then compound this with a child having to make a decision. We know that life and death is measured in seconds and that is why teaching children about when to call 9-1-1 can make all the difference in the world to someone. I remember a situation here in Mississauga where a 4-year-old was taught by their parent, who was a diabetic, to know when to call 9-1-1. Lucky for that parent that they did ! One day the parent had a diabetic emergency and was unconscious. The 4-year-old recognized that this was one of the situations that their parent told them about, called 9-1-1, got help and ultimately saved their parent's life."

And do you still believe in the program today ?

“Very much so. Stories like I just described happen every day. With better education we have better outcomes. Beyond the good news stories, as just described, there are others with less successful circumstances. Even more so, from time to time we hear about people calling 9-1-1 to file a report on a stolen bike or report that their pizza order was messed up. If we can guide our younger generation to the correct reasons to call 9-1-1, then we create a better system.”

Did the kids get it ?

“I would say yes they did. From the sessions I did, the students were engaged. They know of friends or family members that had allergies or had inhalers because they were asthmatics. Some were even well versed in other medical conditions that family members had. So, understanding the importance of calling 9-1-1 would play greatly in their lives.”

I remember you telling me stories about how the school children seemed to have a better grasp of when/why to call 9-1-1 than some of the adults.

“Yes, the program not only had us speaking to them, but it had us interacting with them. They became part of the program so they became much more engaged to it. They saw how they can be part of the solution. That their role in calling 9-1-1 would have a positive outcome for someone in an emergency.”

Do you think that involving children from a young age in such training programs can help promote/improve diversity in our emergency services ?

“A program that engages children would be multi-faceted. First, it arms them with the knowledge of when to call 9-1-1. Second, with the Make the Right Call Program, we interacted with the students. We did a little Show and Tell. We would bring in some of our equipment to demonstrate the use of the equipment through using the students as mock patients. This way if they ever had to interact with us, the equipment would not seem as frightful. The last part, it gave them a little insight to the career of an emergency responder. Hopefully, it would create a spark to a future career path into the emergency services. Through having team members who are reflective of the community take part in these training programs they will see themselves and they would be steered to the career. Greater diversity and reflection of the community leads to better interaction and outcomes."

If you had to re-imagine a community-centric emergency service from the ground-up, where would you start ?

“One word: engagement! Engage with the public and community at every opportunity. There are always community events. These are perfect opportunities to engage with the public. We know that there are some cultures which are fearful of emergency services or they assume that there is a cost for calling. By being involved at community events, we have the opportunity to engage, breakdown barriers and actually foster strong relationships. Through community engagement we foster a level of trust and understanding.”

We need to start with the children.

Be well. Practice big medicine.

- Hal Newman