white coat, black art26:30Air rescue team reinvents first aid support
Paramedic Miles Randell still thinks about what he could have done for a friend if he had been cleared to climb a mountain on a snowy day in January 2014.
Randell was working as a ground ambulance paramedic when he received a call about a man in cardiac arrest in Mount Seymour, north of Vancouver.
Randell would learn that he had been his friend for more than 20 years, Tim Jones.
But Randell says the provincial ambulance service’s risk mitigation policy at the time meant he and his colleagues were not allowed up the mountain that night.
Paramedics tried to resuscitate him, but Randell says too much time had passed.
“I’ll never know for sure, but I feel like we would have given him a better chance of survival if we had given him advanced care sooner,” she said.
As the years went by, Randell says he had more and more problems with the intensity of the calls.
“I was in a very, very dark place and I needed help, but the response at the time was not helpful,” she told Dr. Brian Goldman, host of CBC’s White Coat, Black Art.
Across Canada, several union leaders representing paramedics have sounded the alarm about the burnout, stress and post-traumatic stress injuries many paramedics face due to working conditions.
The president of the BC Ambulance Paramedics union recently said there is a “profound mental health crisis” within the profession.
Throughout Canada research shows that first responders, like paramedics, are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress injuries, depression and anxiety at higher rates compared to the general public.
Dr. Margaret McKinnon, professor and associate chair of research in the department of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at McMaster University, says this is because first responders face many different stressful situations in their work.
“That can have a widespread impact on the way they go about their daily tasks, on their family life and on their own mental health and well-being,” he said.
In 2018, Randell says his career as a paramedic with the provincial ambulance service ended when he was deemed disabled and unemployed due to his mental health and post-traumatic stress injuries.
So Randell says he decided to create his own team of first responders. He founded Technical Evacuation Advanced Aero Medical (TEAAM), a nonprofit organization that responds to calls in remote and wilderness areas by helicopter.
The organization has mental health support, Randell says. Each TEAAM member chooses the person they feel most comfortable working with as a partner, or “buddy,” as they call it. And each base has a contact person who conducts regular check-ins with team members.
Creating team
In addition to wanting to establish a supportive workplace, Randell says part of the motivation for creating TEAAM in 2018 was to address a gap in British Columbia’s healthcare system.
TEAAM nurses, doctors, paramedics and other healthcare professionals provide advanced care in the field, often in remote areas that ground ambulances cannot access.
“When it comes to wilderness air ambulance work in Canada, we’re the first and only ones that are actually doing that kind of work,” he said.
Dan Roddick says he was initially attracted to TEAAM because of what he calls the “wow factor”: the high-level medical care provided to patients in remote spaces.
Roddick, a full-time paramedic with the provincial ambulance service and on-call firefighter, says he stayed working with TEAAM in his free time because of the priority placed on staff well-being.
Roddick points to a difficult recent mission with several logistical challenges, after which Randell called him late in the afternoon to see if he needed any support.
“Working in the medical field is hard on the soul, but TEAAM prioritizes mental well-being and supporting each other in any way possible,” she said in an email to CBC.
The role of the workplace
McKinnon says it’s important for organizations to support and connect first responders to help as needed.
He adds that establishing a workplace where concerns can be raised without being reprimanded and communicating when worker feedback is implemented are key actions leaders can take.
What TEAAM is doing with the buddy program and other supports is an encouraging development, he says.
CBC asked BC Emergency Health Services about Randell’s specific circumstances and decisions surrounding the response to the 2014 call in Mount Seymour. An emailed statement said the organization cannot comment on confidential human resources matters and decisions related to emergency response due to privacy legislation.
The statement goes on to say that generally, the organization responds to calls as quickly as possible with patient safety and staff well-being in mind. The statement lists the mental health supports BC EHS now provides, including an employee and family assistance program and a dedicated team that organizes debriefs and supports workers after challenging calls.
McKinnon says he’s optimistic things can change for the better for first responders, but notes this work requires resources, and that means provincial and federal dollars.
“If we don’t have the resources, then we can’t implement these changes, right? That’s a pragmatic response, but I think it’s really important because we need that support,” he said.
