Last November, our Team began a project to join with our EMS partners in the Lowcountry to provide a program of behavioral health care for our EMS brothers and sisters. This effort was designed to supplement the employees assistance programs and other resources already available to them by creating a Team of their own peers, much like ours, to provide the everyday care they so richly deserve.
We began in November of last year by offering behavioral health awareness training during their normal in-service training. We were pleased as 165 EMS personnel went through training at that time with the hope of finding those in that group who would volunteer to be trained as peer team members. In May of this year, we followed the initial training by providing the first EMS Peer Team program in the Lowcountry. EMS members from Charleston County along with others from Dorchester, Beaufort, and Berkeley County have now come together to form the “LOWCOUNTRY EMS SUPPORT TEAM”. The EMS Support Team and the Firefighter Support Team have now joined together to provide support and services to all our members and their families.
To say we are pleased would be an understatement as these Team members have dedicated themselves to taking care of their own. While our LFST services have always been available to them, we felt we needed EMS team members who understood the unique culture of EMS to lead their Team and we now proudly stand with them as we all move our mission forward.
Congratulations to Ben Brown, Jared Hershberger, Will Rochester, Seth Croutcher, Brittany Person, Patrick Wilkin, Kim Seleen, Nicholas Henderson, Naomi Buytas, Lisa Sienicki, Pete Levine and Chris Esdorn of Charleston County EMS, Angie Stewart and Derrick Haman of Beaufort County EMS, April Miller of Dorchester County EMS and Laura Stephenson of Berkeley for your dedication to your folks and to our mission. We are excited to work with you in the future to expand our Team together!