CARE Committee creates a direct forum for local organizations to help inform community education, resources and future investments
American Medical Response (AMR) Santa Barbara is bringing community organizations and local leaders together through a new advisory committee designed to strengthen collaboration and ensure community perspectives help inform how AMR serves and invests in Santa Barbara County.
“The Community Ambulance Response Equity (CARE) committee brings representatives from local nonprofit and community organizations together with AMR leadership on a regular basis to share perspectives and identify opportunities to help connect residents to information and resources on access to care,” AMR said.
“The input will play a valuable role in the proactive identification of barriers to care before they become gaps in service,” AMR said.
From its inaugural meeting, the collaboration started generating ideas for action. Participating organization leaders identified an opportunity for greater community education about ambulance costs and available financial assistance programs.
AMR also asked committee members to recommend locations for public-access defibrillators that the company will provide at no cost, helping ensure these lifesaving resources are placed where community partners believe they can have the greatest impact.
In May, AMR placed a defibrillator at the Santa Barbara Lawn Bowls Club after responding to a cardiac arrest at the club.
The quick work of emergency responders and medical partners led to a successful outcome for the patient and underscored the important role bystanders can play while first responders are on the way, AMR said.
Mike Sanders, AMR regional director, said the intent is for the committee to become an ongoing avenue for collaboration rather than a one-time outreach effort.
“Our teams are part of these communities every day,” Sanders said. “The CARE committee gives us another way to listen to the people we serve, learn from organizations doing important work throughout the county and turn those conversations into meaningful action.”
Dave Schierman, AMR’s director of operations, said the committee provides an opportunity to look beyond traditional measures of ambulance service and consider the broader needs of the communities AMR serves.
“This collaboration holds great importance because it supports our teams in addressing community care from a holistic view,” Schierman said. “Our community partners bring perspectives and experiences that can help us better understand where there are opportunities to educate, collaborate and invest.”
“Barriers to care are rarely visible from inside a single organization, but surface in the questions a caregiver can’t answer or the bill a family doesn’t understand,” said Nancy Crawford, committee chair and Care Connection’s CEO.
“By bringing together organizations that work directly with Santa Barbara County’s diverse communities every day, AMR gains a direct line to the barriers residents are actually experiencing and committee partners like Care Connection can provide the insight needed to address them,” she said.
The committee is built around four goals:
● Collaboration – Uniting community organizations, health care providers, EMS, public safety, behavioral health and transportation partners to build stronger relationships and tackle shared challenges together.
● Advocacy – Ensuring the voices of patients, families and underserved communities are heard and reflected in decisions shaping the EMS system.
● Representation – Championing representation across north, mid and south Santa Barbara County, honoring the region’s varied health care, cultural and accessibility needs.
● Engagement – Fostering open, two-way dialogue between EMS and the community through shared information, feedback, and greater participation in system improvements.
AMR leadership worked with Assemblymember Gregg Hart to develop the initial list of potential committee participants. Organizations that accepted the invitation include:
● Care Connection (CARE Committee chair Crawford)
● Fighting Back Santa Maria Valley
● Good Samaritan Shelter
● New Beginnings Counseling Center
● Santa Barbara NAACP
● Santa Maria–Lompoc NAACPhttps://www.amr.net
● Santa Ynez Valley People Helping People
For more about AMR, visit www.amr.net.