EMS Services developed and manages Evergreen Community Assistance Referral & Education Services (ECARES). This community program is supported with Community Paramedics. Evergreen Fire/Rescue is also licensed as a Community Integrated Health Care (CIHC) agency.

ECARES, working with our community partners to identify the health and wellness needs of Evergreen residents, has developed a comprehensive, dynamic and integrated community health, wellness and prevention program. The ECARES program fills community and consumer-related gaps in our local health care system and provides education to our residents in how to stay healthy, prevent falls, avoid unnecessary 911 phone calls, emergency room visits, hospital stays and re-admissions to the hospital.

ECARES is a free service available to residents of the Evergreen Fire Protection District and offers:

• In-home safety assessments
• File of Life form completion
• Fall prevention education
• Health care coordination
• Resource navigation

Through our Community Integrated Health Care (CIHC) program if you or a loved one are coming home from the hospital or a nursing facility, ECARES can help. We will come visit 12 to 48 hours after discharge to assist with the following:

• A home risk assessment to help you stay in your home and to ensure a safe home environment.
• Help you understand and apply Discharge Instructions now that you are home.
• Assist in scheduling follow-up appointments.
• Sharing other community resources that can also assist during your recuperation.

FALL PREVENTION

• A-home-fall-prevention-check-list
• Don't-Fall-for-Us-Pamphlet
• What You Can Do to Prevent Falls

FILE OF LIFE

File of Life program is a way of keeping track of your vital medical information so that emergency responders to your home can access it quickly. It can be kept on the outside of your refrigerator, on a medicine cabinet, or on the inside of a metal door to your home. If you fill out the File of Life with a pencil then you can update it when needed as revisions in medications or health conditions occur.

The File of Life helps us to help you! Keep the information current for your medications and dosages. Our paramedics will check the logical locations for this information if we come to assist you. If you would like a red magnetic holder for the File of Life for your home please let us know. Complete a form for each person in your household. Click here to download a File of Life form.

Access the full article here!

~EvergreenFireRescue.com