EMS Response to Patients with Special Needs

Book excerpt: Today, knowledge and understanding of prehospital emergency medicine and disabilities is limited. This valuable text is a new resource to start a discussion about the need to include disability education in EMT and paramedic curricula. EMS Response to Patients with Special Needs: Assessment, Treatment and Transport is the first comprehensive resource of its kind to address the emergency prehospital needs of people with disabilities. “A large subset of our population could be at risk for misunderstandings, potentially inadequate patient care, and incorrect or even dangerous interventions due to insufficient knowledge about disabilities in general and the issues particular to specific disabilities.” – Dr. Katherine Koch Dr. Katherine Koch provides descriptions of a specific disability or disabilities and how the characteristics are relevant to a prehospital setting and to the paramedics and emergency medical technicians who are treating the patients. FEATURES AND BENEFITS: General suggestions for working with people with disabilities, such as person-first language, wheelchair etiquette, and interacting with service animals Suggestions for assessment and treatment are specific to EMS. The disabilities discussed in this text include: • Autism spectrum disorders • Causes and capacities of intellectual disabilities such as pain and Down syndrome • Hearing, vision and speech impairments • Physical disabilities such as arthritis, cerebral palsy and spinal cord injury • Mental health disorders such as ADHD, anxiety and schizophrenia • Traumatic brain injury • Alcohol use disorder • Cystic fibrosis • PANDAS/PANS • Rett syndrome • Sickle cell disease • Systemic lupus erythematosus