EMS/Behavioral Health Curriculum Collaboration

In partnership with the Denver Health Paramedic Division, DU’s Emergency Medical Services program launched in 2021 and provides initial classroom and field training and experience for EMTs much like a physician would in residency. This program is now seeking collaboration from behavioral health professionals, researchers and practitioners to advance our curriculum and better train students in the necessities and complexities of behavioral health.

Training in the field, locally and nationally, is quite limited and DU’s Emergency Medical Services Program is looking to expand training around response options. The collaboration’s role will be to help identify areas of additional training needed, recommend, review, and select facilitators for these training areas, and evaluate topic integration into the larger need of existing EMS professionals. Please note, at this time, the collaboration will not be working to advance or expand current EMS training standards at a state and national level.

Topics we’re aiming to bring in include, but are not limited to:

• De-escalation
• Recognizing behavior indicative of mental health crises/altered mental status
• Moving beyond basic threat assessments into more holistic person-centered assessments
• Building ongoing care and case management (community paramedics)
  • Ongoing medication support/administration

Individuals interested in joining this collaboration can expect the following:

• The collaboration will begin in May of 2023, and will run until Fall 2023. There will be opportunities for collaboration and continued work after that date.
• We anticipate a 2-4 hour commitment per month at most.
• Meetings will utilize a hybrid format (virtual and in-person opportunities)

This collaboration is set to begin in May 2023 and will accept collaborators on a rolling basis. We hope to begin launching the continuing education offerings identified by this group in Fall of 2023.

Please send all inquiries regarding this collaboration to john.seward@du.edu