A legislative committee has decided not to pursue an optional behavioral health licensure proposal for emergency medical technicians in Wyoming at this time.
Andi Summerville, executive director of the Wyoming Association of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers, presented the proposal to the Joint Labor, Health and Social Services Committee during a meeting last month, explaining that EMTs with behavioral health licenses could help people in crisis avoid hospital stays and jail time by diverting them to community mental health clinics or other local resources first, when appropriate.
Those alternative resources aren’t necessarily available in all Wyoming communities, however, one lawmaker noted – and even when they are, Eric Quinney with the Wyoming Emergency Medical Services Association pointed out that “the only way we get paid is if we go to the emergency room.”
“That’s the problem,” Quinney told the committee. “We can’t take them to a crisis center. We won’t get paid.”
‘Big burden’
Quinney also talked about the “liability” EMS crews will take on if they begin formally addressing mental health crises in the field.
“This whole concept kind of puts a big burden on EMS, (which) is already struggling to begin with, and we’ve got to take a pause,” Quinney said, adding, “I’d be interested in working through some of these ideas and issues (to) figure out what this burden is going to be.”
Pointing specifically to the “lack of EMTs” currently working in the state – a situation that has been partly attributed to the “increase in requirements and regulations” surrounding the job – Wyoming Rep. Sarah Penn, R-Lander, wondered whether emergency responders might see a new behavioral health licensure, even an optional one, as just “one more thing” they have to do.
“Will that perception be there, that (they’re) going to have to handle mental health?” she asked. “I worry a little bit that throwing (that in) might deter some.”
Committee vote
Penn was one of the seven Labor Committee members who voted not to move forward with a behavioral health EMT bill draft during this interim.
“Of course, I understand that mental health is a big issue in this state and across the country,” she told County 10 in an email. “However, I feel that the scope of this bill is premature.”
Wyoming is “already experiencing an EMT shortage,” Penn explained, and the emergency responders who attended last month’s meeting “confirmed my suspicion that asking our EMTs to get an extra mental health certification would further strain our already struggling system.”
“Maybe the behavioral EMT idea is something that could be entertained in the future, once we are better staffed at a basic level,” she said. “When all the moving parts are considered, I don’t feel like this was the right move at this time.”
The Labor Committee’s next meeting is scheduled to take place June 22-23 in Evanston.