By Abigail W. Adams
Dispatchers Emily Snowman, Pamela Reed, supervisor Mark Creamer, and Craig Balsdon (left to right) work the night shift at the Lincoln County Communications Center Saturday, April 10. (Abigail Adams photo) |
They stand ready 24 hours a day, seven days a week to answer every 9-1-1 call made in Lincoln County. The response of every fire department, ambulance service, and law enforcement agency in Lincoln County depends on them.
The Pittston, West Gardiner, Randolph, and Farmingdale fire departments depend on them too.
The 11 dispatchers and four supervisors at the Lincoln County Communications Center are the first point of contact in a crisis. They are there for every fire, car accident, medical emergency, and arrest in Lincoln County.
Members of the Lincoln County 9-1-1 team were recognized at an awards ceremony held at the Maine National Emergency Number Association Conference, held in South Portland, April 7 to 9.
The team will be further recognized for their service during the National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, April 12 to 18, and the Lincoln County Communications Center awards dinner April 23.
The events are the rare times dispatchers receive public recognition for their work – work that involves literally answering the call of those in need.
Most communications centers have high staff turnover rates with dispatchers experiencing burnout within a few years, Lincoln County supervisor Mark Creamer said. The high stress and emotional toll of the job cause many to walk away.
However, there are rarely open positions at the Lincoln County Communications Center. The newest member of the team, Emily Snowman, began 1½ years ago. Snowman called the communications center for months expressing interest in employment before a position became available.
The longest serving member of the team, supervisor Kathy Blagdon, has served for approximately 30 years – three other members of the team have served for over two decades.
The collective memory of the staff stretches back to the early 1980s when the communications’ center was located in the courthouse and when dispatchers doubled as corrections officers at the 48-hour holding facility there. Dispatchers still on the job remember the move to the old county jail, currently the basement of the sheriff’s office, where they worked out of an area called “the fishbowl.”
The communications center moved to its current location in 1998. Many on staff have personally experienced the advances in technology that have streamlined dispatch services. They remember when call logs were written with a typewriter. They were there when the center served as the pilot program for enhanced 9-1-1 and mapping. The project helped dispatchers identify the exact location of an emergency for responders. It is now a standard feature in communications centers.
They have also personally experienced decades worth of critical incidents – for every fatal car accident, structure fire, critical injury, and medical emergency there was a dispatcher that took the call and stayed on the line until help arrived.
“We don’t get much closure,” Creamer said. “That’s the downside.”
Dispatchers are the first responders to learn of an emergency. The three to four staff members on shift work together to collect critical information from callers, who are oftentimes overwhelmed with fear and anxiety, to relay to the emergency responders simultaneously dispatched.
The time period between when the call is received and when the emergency responder arrives on scene, even if only 5 minutes, feels like an eternity, dispatchers said. Removed from the physical scene, dispatchers rarely receive recognition for their role in the emergency response.
They are oftentimes the brunt of hostility from panicked callers. For medical emergencies, many callers express anger over the long list of questions asked.
“There is no delay in the emergency response from these questions,” Snowman said. “Help is already on the way and that extra question may give them [the responder] the information they need to save a life.”
Oftentimes, for medical calls, the dispatcher, who shared in the trauma of the event with the caller, never learns the outcome. When there is a bad outcome, despite not being at the scene, dispatchers feel it. “It affects you,” a dispatcher said. “Anyone who says it doesn’t is lying.”
It is the tragedies that involve children that shake everybody, Creamer said. Early in his 20 year career, Creamer took a call about a child that slid into the roadway and was hit by a plow truck. It has stayed with him.
Dispatchers, at that time, were not invited to participate in debriefings held for emergency responders following a critical incident. The inclusion of dispatchers in debriefings, where the situation is reviewed and responders can vent about how it affected them, was something that had to be fought for, Creamer said.
Dispatchers are now strongly encouraged to attend debriefings and many dispatchers at Lincoln County 9-1-1 have expressed interest in completing the training to be able to conduct them. Bound by confidentiality, debriefings are a rare opportunity for dispatchers to speak openly and in detail about the incident with the other responders who shared the call.
“The biggest problem is replaying the call in your mind,” a dispatcher said. The debriefings help prevent that.
For all the tragedy and trauma involved in a daily shift as a dispatcher, the staff at Lincoln County 9-1-1 keep returning to the job. The training, policies, and camaraderie at the communications center have transformed the staff into a close knit family with a reputation for providing high quality dispatch services.
9-1-1 calls are answered no later than the second ring. Once a call comes in, staff launch from inter-office banter to total professionalism to get responders to where they need to go. Over 40,000 calls were answered in 2014.
Each fire department has its own unique dispatch protocol, which staff at the communications center have split seconds to determine and follow.
During the Nor’easter in November, dispatchers worked their 12 hour shifts without break. Approximately 281 calls were received. Not a single call was dropped.
Due to the reputation of the Lincoln County Communications Center, emergency responders from neighboring communities request their dispatch services on a regular basis, Lincoln County Communications Director Tod Hartung said.
On April 15, the Central Lincoln County Ambulance Service began to receive dispatch services directly from the communications center. The center is also in negotiations to dispatch to the Gardiner Fire Department.
The training and quality assurance checks are continuous. Approximately 100 quality assurance checks, to ensure all protocols are followed, are performed every month.
Staff answered the question of how many hours of training are involved in the job with laughter. In addition to the extended process to become a certified dispatcher, Lincoln County 9-1-1 emphasizes on-going training.
In response to the onslaught of school shootings, such as Columbine and Sandy Hook, dispatchers now undergo active shooter training.
For many in the emergency responder community, the question of a school shooting is not if it will occur, Creamer said. It is a question of when. The staff at Lincoln County 9-1-1 are taking steps to ensure they will be prepared.
“We deal with a lot of negatives in this job, but the services we’re providing are really positive,” Snowman said.
The communications center engages in a variety of educational programming to increase awareness about 9-1-1 and the work of dispatchers. Every April, Lincoln County Communications Center’s Red-e Fox tours area schools to educate students.
The communications center also provides requested trainings and informational sessions for other community organizations.
Organizations or schools interested in further information about Lincoln County 9-1-1 are encouraged to contact them at 882- 7332.
