More than emergencies: Sault paramedics honoured for filling critical gaps in care

💛 Communtiy Builders Awards: For their deep commitment to the health of the community, the Community Paramedicine Program is recognized as this year’s Health Care award recipient

For the team behind Sault Ste. Marie’s Community Paramedicine Program, making a difference in the community doesn’t always mean responding to an emergency.

Sometimes, it means helping someone access food, finding a way to connect a patient with the right service, helping an older adult navigate the health care system or simply finding a sustainable solution that prevents someone from reaching another crisis point.

It’s that commitment to helping people stay healthier and more connected to the services they need that has earned the Community Paramedicine Program the Health Care award for this year’s SooToday Community Builders Awards.

The recognition was met with plenty of excitement — but also a deep sense of gratitude from the team.

“We were very happy and honoured to receive this recognition,” Commander of Community Paramedicine, Julie Cole said.

“Hearing from patients and families we’ve supported, as well as many of our partner agencies, was incredibly compelling and heartwarming.”

While paramedics are often associated with responding to emergencies, community paramedics take a different approach.

Rather than only stepping in when a crisis occurs, the team works to help people manage their health and connect with resources in the community before those crises happen.

For the team, that difference is at the heart of why the program exists.

“When you work as a paramedic, you’re often dealing with emergencies and seeing such a brief window into somebody’s crisis or into somebody’s life,” Cole explained.

“You might go there again the next week and see another brief window of that person’s life and that person’s crisis. You start asking, why does this continue to happen?”

Those questions have helped drive the program’s work to identify the gaps that can leave people struggling to find the care, resources and support they need.

Sometimes, those gaps exist within the health-care system.

Other times, they involve social services, food security or simply not knowing where to turn for help.

“For those of us who are in the system and working in the system, sometimes we even have a hard time navigating it,” Cole said.

“We can only imagine what it’s like for patients.”

Community paramedics work to help make that process easier, connecting people with appropriate services and looking for solutions that can make a lasting difference in their lives.

“If we can get somebody housed, for example, that’s a major milestone,” Cole said.

“If we can get somebody who is food insecure into some kind of food programming so that they have food regularly, those are big wins for us.”

Those wins are a reminder that community care can take many forms.

“Sometimes it’s just being able to solve a problem for somebody,” Cole said.

Still, receiving the Health Care award has provided an important reminder to the Community Paramedicine team that its work is having an impact.

“The team is very humble and I’m often telling them that they have a huge impact,” Cole said.

“I don’t know if they always believe me, so this just reinforces the level of impact that they are having on this community and on the system in general.”

Looking ahead, Cole hopes to continue expanding the program and reaching even more people who need support.

“I wish I could double the size of the team so we could do more,” Cole said.

“That’s the plan and that’s the goal — to always continue finding those gaps and finding sustainable solutions.”

For the Community Paramedicine Program, the work is ultimately about more than responding to problems as they arise.

It’s about understanding why those problems keep happening, helping people navigate the systems around them and finding solutions that can make life a little easier.

And for a community, those everyday victories can make a lasting difference.

The Health Care award honours an individual or group that has made an exceptional and meaningful contribution to the health and well-being of the community.

This award is generously sponsored by Final Touch.

SooToday is proud to recognize those making a difference in our community with our Community Builders Awards, a foundational piece of our GoodWorks program.

This work is made possible by the support of our GoodMakers. Want to help create more good news in Sault Ste. Marie? Become a GoodMaker today.