Supporting Emergency Medical Services Clinicians Through Acute and Sustained Crises With Informal Peer Support and Intentional Acts of Kindness: The Emergency Medical Services Code Lavender Program

Objective

Given the recommendations against the use of critical incident stress debriefing, the emergency medical services (EMS) Code Lavender program was created as a mechanism to consistently recognize and reach out to EMS clinicians after acute crisis events, offer nonintrusive informal peer support and acts of kindness, and provide stepwise support via mental health professionals as needed. The study aimed to assess program utilization and evaluate the program's impact on EMS clinicians’ perceptions of support and resources available to them after an acute crisis event.

Methods

Anonymous surveys were distributed before program implementation and 18 months later. Program utilization was tracked using REDCap (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN). Fisher exact tests and logistic regression were used to analyze the survey results.

Results

Within 30 months, 87 referrals were made. Seventy-seven preprogram (59% response rate) and 104 intraprogram (88% response rate) surveys were collected. There were no differences between respondents by sex or role. There were significant improvements in knowing where to go for help (from 40% to 85%, P < .001) and willingness to seek help if needed (from 40% to 59%, P = .02).

Conclusion

The implementation of an EMS Code Lavender program led to significant increases in EMS clinician self-reported knowledge of where to go and willingness to seek help after acute crisis events.