Prehospital Profiles: Lebanon Rescue Promotes Neighbors Helping Neighbors

Response from the Lebanon (ME) Rescue Department during the record-making and -breaking ice storms across New England in January 1998 and a decade later in December 2008 are perfect examples of its "Neighbors Helping Neighbors" mantra.

During both storms, volunteers traveled door to door to check on residents who couldn't be reached by phone or were isolated in their homes without family nearby to check on them. In the 2008 storm alone, volunteers visited more than 700 homes during the nearly week-long ordeal without power, indicates Samantha Cole, department chief.

"We have a mobile home park with a shared water source that was turned off," she recalls. "Many of its residents, who are either elderly or homebound due to health concerns, couldn't get out so we delivered food and water as well as oxygen to those in need. We also helped evacuate some of them to shelters. We even helped deliver hay to horses, and we assisted several town and local agencies."

These are just two examples of the many neighborly calls the 49-member volunteer team makes for the approximately 7,000 residents it serves. Last year alone, the team contributed more than 15,000 hours of service, and has over the years collected coats and toys for kids, winterized homes for the less fortunate and seniors and stood by at sporting and community events to ensure participants and attendees are safe. Last year Chief Cole received the Excellence in Volunteer Leadership Award from the Governor's Office, and this year the department was presented the Outstanding Non-Profit Award for the Governor's Volunteer Service Awards, which is administered jointly by the Maine Commission for Community Service and the Governor's Office.

The department is also focused on helping community members help themselves by offering CPR, first aid and injury prevention. Last year, volunteers taught more than 20 classes to over 600 residents. It also hosted a Martin Luther King Day program where volunteers taught about 50 residents from Maine and New Hampshire CPR, AED and first aid at no cost to the attendees, thanks in part to a grant from the Maine Commission for Community Service.

"We live in a community that is 58 square miles," Cole relates. "We have only one ambulance and two first response vehicles. If we receive a call from someone in our northern area, it can take a while to respond because of the distance we need to travel. If we have people trained in CPR, first aid and AED, they can start life-saving measures before we get there, which is important in saving lives."

The department has also strategically placed eight AEDs throughout the community so volunteers can reach the majority of residents within a five-minute timeframe. The availability of training and AEDs were instrumental in the department being selected as a Heart Safe Community, the first such community in York County and one of only five in the state. The recognition program, sponsored by the Maine Cardiovascular Health Program and the Maine Emergency Medical services, is designed to help improve survivability and recovery for anyone suffering a cardiovascular-related event.

SELF SUFFICIENT

The department is very focused on being self-sufficient, in part out of necessity. The community is 90% rural and its residents have voted out services, including closing the police department and city hall and cutting ambulance service for six months, to save money.

Payouts from patient insurance companies go toward the next fiscal year's budget, and donations help offset the cost of equipment, including an ambulance, two cardiac monitors and an auto-pulse CPR board. Cole also works tirelessly to apply for grants to cover additional costs of equipment, training, etc.

"We have been completely self-funded since 2006," she indicates. "What we take in through grants, revenue and donations pays for our ambulance service. There's zero taxpayer money appropriated for our budget. We're in the process right now of purchasing a new ambulance, all with zero tax money."

In just the past few years, the department has received several substantial grants, including two from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, one which included the donation of a 2009 Ford Explorer which is used as a first responder vehicle and another for $5,000 to cover the cost of a cardiac monitor. It also received about $75,000 in Homeland Security grants to pay for six AEDs and a security system and upgrades for the station. Two Assistance to Firefighters Grants for nearly $60,000 was used to purchase safety gear and create an EMS wellness program. It also received $2,500 from Frisbie Hospital for community CPR training and another $1,500 from the Rural AED Grant program. It also was awarded a 2008 Polaris 6x6 utility vehicle that is uses for off-road rescues.

"It does take a lot of legwork and time to research the grants and fill out the applications, but it's not a difficult process," Cole says. "We've been very successful, and we probably get about nine out of every 10 grants we apply for."

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

The Lebanon Rescue Department is focused on the future as well. To that end, it created a Junior EMS program in 2001 designed to expose 16- and 17-year-old teenagers to EMS. "A lot of our younger volunteers are former EMS junior members," says Cole. "This program gives them a feel for what EMS is all about."

The training for junior members, as well as all volunteers, is free. They are encouraged to attend meetings and respond to typical medical and trauma calls (basically any calls that don't put them in danger) with a licensed paramedic or EMT. Each year the department accepts up to six or seven applicants.

"We try to keep the program small so we can give each of them one-on-one attention and match them to a mentor in the department," she says. "It gives teenagers, especially those who may not know what they want to do after high school, an opportunity to see what the medical field offers. A lot of them have gone on to become volunteer EMTs and paramedics, and even full-time career EMS providers in other jurisdictions. Others have decided that EMS is not for them and they've gone on to become nurses and teachers. Currently, one of our junior members is in medical school, studying physical therapy. Overall, it's a way to give them experience in a safe environment."

For more on the Lebanon Rescue Department, visit www.lebanonrescue.com, or visit the agency's Facebook page.