Community Paramedicine Program

Bennington Rescue is in the process of establishing a community paramedicine program for the region.

What is Community Paramedicine?

Community paramedicine (CP) is a healthcare model that utilizes specially trained paramedics to provide non-emergency medical services in the community.

  • CP focuses on providing healthcare services that do not require immediate emergency response.

  • Crew members on our CP team receive additional training beyond traditional EMS education, allowing them to perform a wider range of healthcare tasks.

  • CP services are delivered in the community, such as patients' homes, community centers, or other locations that can be less imposing or anxious than formal healthcare settings.

We are working on expanding our strong community partnerships to help bridge gaps in between existing resources, such as chronic disease management, mental health support, substance use recovery support, post-hospital discharge follow-up, home safety assessments, etc.

What are the benefits of a CP program?

CP programs are growing and exist in many states. These programs improve access to healthcare for under-served populations, reduce EMS ambulance & emergency department use, support healthier chronic disease management, and help patients coordinate care and navigation with complex health and social service systems.

When is CP starting here?

Our goal is to start in the time frame between the end of 2025 and early 2026. September 12, 2025 we are holding a stakeholder meeting with organizations that serve southern Vermont to identify gaps between existing services and brainstorm best areas to focus the initial efforts of the program.

If you are interested in learning more, please read this Bennington Community Paramedic Program Overview.

Substance Use Disorder

Bennington Rescue works closely with partners like Turning Point Center of Bennington to assist individuals with substance use disorder (SUD). This includes a network of referrals for outreach after the emergency is over. This referral-outreach program is highlighted in work around the state and some media coverage.

Bennington Rescue also has buprenorphine, a medication that reduces opioid withdrawal symptoms and helps prevent subsequent overdose. We are the first in the state to provide this treatment in the field and worked closely with Turning Point, United Counseling Service, and SaVida Bennington to initiate this program.

We also host a public access naloxone (Narcan) station and support others throughout the community including Bennington Police Department Lobby. Additionally, there is a naloxone vending machine with 24/7 access at GBCS on Benmont St. in Bennington. We also hand out first aid harm reduction kits with first aid supplies, naloxone and recovery information in our education programs and public events.

Since March 2023, Bennington Rescue remains an active partner in the Bennington-region Project Alliance an effort to connect public safety, healthcare, and community services to address the burdens of SUD especially on 911 services most affected in our region (police & EMS). This has led to many community projects to address those needs, many of which are still being developed.

As an example, we are planning to expand our SUD referral and resource navigation programs in the future to include not only those suffering from SUD but other chronic conditions, or lack of access, or non-emergency needs but don’t know where to turn besides 911 for help. This type of community paramedic program aims to reduce patient harm by diverting those that may use the limited EMS and emergency department capacity to better medical, mental health, SUD, or community resources to meet their routine or ongoing needs. This type of work takes time, trust, partnerships, and funding to establish.

Bennington Help Map

ACT Bennington maintains a Help Map of community resources available in Bennington including:

  • Basic needs (housing, YMCA shower program, food distribution)

  • Health needs (free clinic, medical offices)

  • Recovery resources (Turning Point, UCS, SaVida)

They also have pocket cards available for distribution, perform valuable work in youth health & SUD prevention, and many more initiatives - Alliance for Community Transformation - Bennington for more information, get involved, or contact them!

This is also a result of the work of the Bennington Project Alliance.

Bennington PD First Response

In 2023, the Chief & Lieutenant of Bennington PD along with our Executive Director were brainstorming to find ways to make our long partnership serve the community in new, even more successful ways. This led to a plan to train officers, communication specialists, and office personnel as first responders.

Instructors Katie Fox and Alex Szabo helped train the BPD team to become Vermont Emergency First Responders (VEFR). This is an entry level EMS position but learns life-saving skills such as CPR, naloxone, Stop The Bleed, medication assistance for patients that already have EpiPens or asthma/COPD inhalers, etc.

Through a Rural EMS Training grant from the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), we obtained we were able to obtain 4 new professional responder AEDs. They are on long-term loan to BPD under our Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Our MOU also affiliates all the VEFR-trained members of BPD with BRS for tracking of EMS training, recertification, etc. The 4 AEDs allow the main patrol units to each carry one along with a first response bag of supplies to deal with life-threats in the minutes that count the most.