Sudbury's paramedics were recognized for the expanding role they play in health care during a ceremony the Lionel E. Lalonde Centre in Azilda Monday morning to officially kick off Paramedic Week.
Sudbury Mayor Brian Bigger declared the week of May 24-30 as Paramedic Week in Greater Sudbury.
“It's great to have recognition of what we do,” said Matt James, an advanced care paramedic in Sudbury.
James said that even in his six-year career, his role as a paramedic has evolved, along with his level of training.
He recently returned to school for a year so he could receive his advanced care certification.
And in the past year, many of Sudbury's paramedics have received mental health and addictions training thanks to a $45,000 grant from the province.
“That's definitely an addition to our skillset,” James said. “We weren't doing that before.”
He said the mental health and addictions training has helped him and his colleagues better direct patients to the care they need.
Instead of bringing a patient with a severe mental illness to the emergency department, where they might have to wait a while before they receive care, they can bring them straight to the hospital's Mental Health and Addictions Centre on Cedar Street.
“It's a much more comforting and appropriate place to bring them,” James said.
For people who are addicted to alcohol, the withdrawal management services are Pine Street are also more appropriate than the emergency department, he added.
In January 2015 Sudbury's paramedic services Transitions Care program, which also expands the role paramedics play in the community.
The Ministry of Health and Long Term Care granted the city $300,000 to launch a pilot program that has assigned three paramedics to conduct preventative home visits with patients who have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes or heart failure.
“Paramedics are well suited, with their training, to do some of the more acute care at home, which the hospital is really looking to do,” said Dr. Jason Prpic, the regional medical director of the North Eastern Ontario Prehospital Care Program.
Prpic said the Transitions Care program helps the hospital meet its mandate to provide more care in the community, where costs are lower.
Trevor Bain, the city's chief of fire and paramedic services, said Paramedic Week is a chance for the public to better understand the changing role paramedics play in the community, and the skill involved in the job.
He said paramedics' skill levels have increased “100-fold” in the last 20 to 30 years.
