Integrating a Wellness Program into Your EMS Service

Delaware County (OH) EMS shares how it implemented a wellness program among staff and offers tips to help other departments.

In the emergency medical services industry, we are all aware of the mental stressors placed on us by the nature of our work, the unhealthy habits many of us take on, the effects of sleep interruption and the physical toll our bodies endure over our careers.

So what do we have to look forward to? A career plagued by on the job injuries? A poor quality of life during retirement? Or a shorter life expectancy? Maybe, but why settle for that? We have the ability to mitigate this.

We at the Delaware County EMS (DCEMS) Department in Ohio would like to share with you how our agency has integrated an overall wellness program into our system. We share this with the hope that you can implement something similar in your department, and together we can improve the health and well-being of our industry’s people.

Related

First, you must take a step back and look at the big picture while creating a vision tailored to your departmental needs. A wellness program is not just giving people a gym membership or placing workout equipment in stations. It is approaching wellness from mental, physical and dietary angles as they are all tied together. Below we outline our program and how it all ties together.

The DCEMS County-sponsored wellness program:

As an agency, we are a department under the Delaware County Board of Commissioners. Our county offers a wellness plan to all of its 1,110+ employees that encourages prevention, physical activity and good mental health. Participating in this program yields lower insurance costs out of our paychecks the following year.
Delaware County also offers an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) program that allows for free counseling services among other professional services.

Fit Responder

Delaware County EMS adopted the Fit Responder program and trained all members of our department in stretching and mobility, as well as in safe patient handling and lifting techniques. The aim of the Fit Responder program is to reduce the number of on-the-job injuries, many of which involve the back and can be career ending, depending on severity.

Fitness Team

Our EMS Department is fortunate to have personnel with a drive to get involved and develop new programs internally. Members of our Fitness Team meet regularly to discuss exercise equipment and new programs. They also have played an active role in training our personnel to correctly use newly purchased exercise equipment.
Members of the Fitness Team have created video content that provides instruction on exercise equipment and exercise techniques, and that encourages their coworkers. These short instructional videos allow our employees to access and review material anytime they wish.
View these videos here.

Fitness Program

Delaware County has contracted with a local health system’s exercise physiologist. These trainers work five days each week with our crews at different stations.
Delaware County also occasionally offers online yoga classes that are taught by certified yoga instructors up to three times a week.

Exercise Equipment

When it came to exercise equipment, the Fitness Team recommended equipment that is both versatile and not that technically demanding to use. This helps keep people safe. It is a blend of cardio- and resistance-training equipment, with an emphasis on general fitness and physical preparedness. Examples of the equipment include treadmills, rowing machines, resistance bands, medicine balls and kettlebells.

Mental Health

Delaware County EMS actively promotes taking care of its people’s mental health through multiple avenues such as:
- Hosted mental health seminars.
- Partnerships with local and statewide mental health resources that are made available to all of our personnel. These include retreats and counseling.
- A peer support team.
- A general culture and philosophy of acceptance that regards good mental health to be just as important as good physical health.

Dietary

In early 2020, Delaware County EMS partnered with a dietician to create a monthly healthy eating newsletter for our personnel. The newsletter is full of information related to healthy eating habits, and provides recipes for the crews to cook at their stations.

Wellness Policy and Leadership

In early 2020, Delaware County EMS created a policy mandating 45 minutes of physical activity a day. Each employee records the activity through an online system and submits it daily. Accountability is key in a wellness program.
And so is leadership. All activities listed in this article fall directly under the responsibility of one of our assistant chiefs who communicates and interacts constantly with the different teams, committees and organizations that make all of this work. Without someone overseeing the process, it would not be successful.
The employees of DCEMS are also evaluated through a yearly physical abilities screening as well. This is a job-specific test designed by exercise physiologist, and tailored to our department.

The results so far have been promising. Many employees report that they feel better, are more active, and appreciate the resources provided. We’ve also seen certain types of injuries decrease.

Our program continues to evolve as we learn from our experiences. We believe a key feature of any successful program is retaining that same willingness to adapt that sparked the creation of the program in the first place.

DCEMS is a medium-sized department. What we have done here can be adapted to your size and needs as a department and we hope that you found some value in our sharing of the wellness program at DCEMS.