(EMS) Week: May 14-20, 2000

EMS Week is a national observance to educate the public about emergency care and to recognize EMS providers. Communities across the nation will be marking this week by thanking the hard-working, little-recognized professionals who are called upon every day to use their skills to save lives. Emergency professionals will be speaking out during this week about how to prevent injuries and what to do in an emergency.

Because EMS professionals are first responders to motor vehicle crashes and are effective spokespersons for injury prevention, they should be part of any highway safety coalition or campaign. EMS Week is a good chance to build or enhance relationships with EMS providers in your community and show that injury prevention is an important part of a public health initiative. Even though some of these activities are not directly related to traffic safety, they help create community awareness and bring a cohesiveness to your local injury prevention efforts.

You can join EMS providers and other supporters in sponsoring activities such as:

• mock car crashes;
• open houses to meet the public and display fire and rescue vehicles;
• school visits to educate children about what to do in an emergency; and
• CPR demonstrations.

To promote the week and help EMS providers plan activities, the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) develops and distributes an EMS week kit, with "how to" information to assist with local promotions. The kit includes clip art, logos, an EMS Week poster, statistics and a specialty item catalog.

To order a free kit, call ACEP's Customer Service Department at 1-800-798-1822, touch 6, and start planning your activities. (Postage is required for orders of more than 15 packets.)