Tripp County receives $300K Center for Substance Abuse Treatment Projects of Regional and National Significance grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Growing the ems workforce in central and western South Dakota - growing the ems workforce in central and western South Dakota. The Tripp County rural ems training and overdose response project will strengthen rural ems capacity through emt training, continuing education, and local overdose/behavioral health response implementation. Over two years, the project will train 294 rural emt trainees, provide 700 ceu seats/training encounters, support 12–16 cadets, and improve overdose response, referral, documentation, and buprenorphine protocol implementation. Rural communities across the united states face ems workforce shortages, volunteer recruitment and retention barriers, distance from training, limited continuing education access, and increasing demand for response to overdose, substance use-related emergencies, and behavioral health crises. Goals are to expand rural emt recruitment, training, and certification; maintain workforce readiness through continuing education and required training; and improve Tripp County's overdose and behavioral health response capacity. Measurable objectives include training 294 emt students, reaching at least 350 unduplicated ems personnel through emt and ceu activities, achieving at least a 65% certification rate and 80% nremt pass rate, providing 350 ceu training encounters annually, supporting 12–16 ems cadets, and implementing local overdose response, referral, and buprenorphine protocol.