May 15, 2022 — It's National EMS Week! This week we will highlight several themes that impact EMS providers and our community.

Today's theme is Health, Wellness, and Resilience Day. Our EMTs and Paramedics are challenged each day to respond to and mitigate a wide range of medical emergencies in our communities. Sometimes we are called to the critically ill, dead or dying and sometimes we simply hold someone's hand and give guidance. We are the critical link delivering advanced life support where it is needed - connecting patients to definitive hospital care and regional specialty centers. Our EMS providers exude the core values of Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Dedication and Excellence (our core values) in the most extreme circumstances.

Because EMS work is exhaustively demanding of our caregivers it is important that we are mindful of the health, wellness and resilience of our EMTs and Paramedics. We strive to provide our employees with on-site physical fitness equipment, extensive wellness medical screenings, healthcare benefits, employee assistance programs, and peer support programs. Sometimes this means evaluating our EMS system and making changes to assure that we are supportive of the health, wellness and resilience of our EMTs and Paramedics while evolving to meet our mission to provide critical care within our communities. This is the first year that we have been able to offer our employees an annual wellness screening that will include early detection of cancers, cardiovascular risks as well as behavioral health screening. We are proud to offer these services to support long and healthy careers of service from our providers to you.