EMS for Children Day to Highlight Behavioral and Mental Health

From 2019 to 2020, researchers found a 21% increase in children with behavior or conduct problems. With mental health issues in children on the rise, Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC) Day, held annually on Wednesday during National EMS Week, shines a light on caring for children in crisis in emergency care settings in addition to highlighting available resources to support the EMS professional when dealing with challenging situations.

“Since mental illness has reached epidemic proportions in this country, we are excited that this year’s National EMS Week theme, Rising to the Challenge, and Sunday’s new theme day of Health, Wellness, and Resilience Day, will address this important topic,” says Jeff Jarvis, MD, FACEP, FEMS, EMS medical director in Williamson County, Texas.

EMSC Day will feature a webinar, “COPE-ing with the Challenges of Pediatric Behavioral and Mental Health Emergencies," with featured speakers Mary Fallat, MD, of the University of Louisville, and Kenshata Watkins, MD, and Nicolaus Glomb, MD, from UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, Oakland, California. Registration is free and open to all, and CE is available.

Other ways to get involved and bring attention to the needs of children on EMSC Day include downloading EMSC Day materials, such as thank-you cards and activity sheets for children; sharing EMSC Day content on your agency's social media accounts, including Twitter and Facebook; and obtaining an EMSC Day proclamation for your city or state. Promotional materials and celebration ideas can be found on the EMSC Innovation & Improvement Center’s (EIIC) website.

“The best and most important step you can take in honor of EMSC Day is to begin using the newly developed pediatric checklist and toolkit for EMS agencies,” says Kate Remick, MD, EIIC codirector. “While EMSC Day is a wonderful day to highlight pediatric prehospital care, our kids require attention every day of the year.”

Learn more about the pediatric checklist and toolkit here. Learn more about EMSC Day here.

Formed in 2016, the Emergency Medical Services for Children Innovation and Improvement Center (EIIC) leverages quality improvement science, the experiential knowledge of its colead organizations—the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School and University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children's, as well as partners at Yale University, Baylor College of Medicine, and the Lundquist Institute—and the expertise of multiple professional societies and federal organizations to improve health care outcomes for children in emergency settings. Learn more at https://emscimprovement.center.