2022 is barely underway and Trek Medics is already ramping up for a big year, particularly here in the US.
For anyone who’s been paying attention to the US news the past couple years, there’s been a lot of focus on reforming the 911 system. While the media tends to focus on people with the most extreme opinions, Trek Medics is working with communities to do the sensible thing and dispatch fully-qualified, non-traditional responders alongside police, fire and EMS.
Here are five ways we’ll be doing exactly that in 2022:
- We’re very excited to announce that we’ve been accepted into the Unbundle Policing Accelerator, sponsored by MIT Solve/Standby Ventures. This accelerator is focused on reducing adverse interactions between 911 and the community, and will provide us with funding and mentors to deploy and scale our Beacon dispatch platform to support more community-based response groups
- Our partners with the Litchfield County Opiate Task Force were recently awarded a multi-year grant from the Bureau of Justice Administration, part of which will expand our existing collaboration to dispatch community volunteers when overdose spikes are reported across both Litchfield AND Fairfield Counties
- Thanks to support from AmerisourceBergen Foundation, our work supporting and scaling community-based overdose response networks will continue throughout 2022 in partnership with:
- Connecticut Harm Reduction Alliance (Hartford, CT)
- Litchfield County Opiate Task Force (CT)
- Overdose Lifeline (Indianapolis, IN)
- Rescate Isabela (Isabela, Puerto Rico)
- Our work supporting SafeNest in Las Vegas to dispatch domestic violence crisis counselors in tandem with Las Vegas Police continues to grow, with plans for continued scaling throughout 2022
- At the end of 2021, we launched a new program in San Diego, California, where calls to 911 for behavioral health emergencies that have no criminal component or medical complaint are being relayed to a group that is using Beacon to dispatch mental health crisis counselors, instead of EMS, Police and Fire. This program is very meaningful to me personally, as I know first-hand how many mental health emergencies 911 has to respond to in San Diego, and how little formal we received as paramedics to handle mental health emergencies. There are more qualified responders to handle these calls — hats off to San Diego for tapping into them!
Every day we’re seeing how Beacon is proving to be the right solution at the right time for communities around the world who want to engage more deeply in managing emergency response at the local level. We’re very excited to continue working with communities to help them re-imagine emergency response and we are deeply grateful for your support in making all of this possible.
