Crisis Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

State EMS, Fire Department Leaders Address Job Vacancy, Mental Health Crisis

State fire and EMS leaders face challenges with job recruiting and retention, keeping stations open and maintaining mental health in the wake of experiencing overwhelming tragedy. They are asking for help from the West Virginia Legislature.

Emotions ran high on Tuesday afternoon, as the Joint Committee on Volunteer Fire Departments and Emergency Medical Services heard stories of first responders’ continuing mental anguish in the aftermath of so many trauma response calls.

Jody Ratliff, the state Emergency Medical Services director, said a key to keeping people on the squads is addressing mental health issues. He said 988 Crisis Lifeline counselors are now working with traumatized EMTs and sending staff to ride along on serious ambulance calls.

Ratliff is also establishing regional critical debriefing teams throughout the state, responding when trauma and grief counseling are most needed.

“When there’s a major incident, we can deploy that team out to those areas, and they can actually do critical debriefing for it,” Ratliff said. “All these services, we’ve been able to pull off for free. So it’s not costing taxpayers a penny.”

Ratliff plans to eventually include firefighters in his trauma relief plans.

Randy James, the president of the West Virginia State Fire Chiefs Association, relates the dire funding woes of volunteer fire departments (VFDs) to mental health. James said new legislation gives VFDs the option to purchase a separate insurance policy to cover mental health issues for their members, but he added that it’s not working since it’s not affordable.

“As far as I know, I have not heard of a single fire department purchasing the extra insurance to cover PTSD for its members, they can’t afford it,” James said.

Joint committee members began the meeting by working to revitalize failed House Bill 3153, which would have markedly increased funding for volunteer fire departments and emergency medical services providers.

James told lawmakers if an EMS squad runs short of funds, they shut down. He said in 2022, 15 squads closed their doors. However, he said when VFDs lack funds, they lose volunteers.

“The departments will just keep doing what they do,” James said. “They cut back on services, maybe they don’t purchase as much equipment or they buy used equipment or even cut back on training. But one major thing that happens to a volunteer fire department when you don’t have adequate funding, is they lose members.”

James said it is aggravating to come away from legislative sessions with basically no increase in funding since 2005 while hearing the news about surplus funds and record tax collections. He asked the committee what else first responders can do to turn around 1,900 EMS vacancies with a workforce short by nearly a third.

Del. Joe Statler, R-Monongalia, echoed his fellow member’s sentiments when he said “don’t give up.”

“We know all the departments across the state are frustrated,” Statler said. “We hear when we’re back home, we hear from our local volunteer fire companies and EMS services. We are continuing to work on this problem that we have before us.”

Committee members said they would continue to make the failed funding bill better suited to passage. They plan to draft a letter to Gov. Jim Justice that the bill be included in any upcoming special session.

Fire and EMS Committee Chair Sen. Vince Deeds, R-Greenbrier, ended the interim meeting with a promise.

“As you can tell, everyone on this committee really is involved and engaged on all these issues,” Deeds said. “I give you my word, we’ll do everything we possibly can to get it right.”

Many W.Va. Counties In Crisis Mode Over School Bus Driver Shortage

Numerous West Virginia counties are struggling to recruit and retain school bus drivers and mechanics.

State school transportation director David Baber said bus driver and mechanic shortages are a fluctuating, county by county problem.

“Unfortunately, it’s kind of up to the individual county,” Baber said. “It’s what works best for them. We have certain areas that are worse than others. The population, the economy makes a difference whether we can get people to work.”

West Virginia school bus drivers go through at least 50 hours of rigorous training. Baber said more affluent counties, like Cabell, now pay for the training. He said many others still do not.

“It’s most always been that way. There was no provision in the state code or anything to pay for that training unless the county had excess money, and most of them don’t have any excess money,” Baber said.

“Plus, we have new federal regulations that took place in February that even make it a little bit stricter and tougher on us.”

Baber said, like many other states, school bus driver shortages are causing longer bus routes, creating challenges transporting students to extracurricular and sporting events – and some walking-to-school boundaries are expanding.

Baber says there’s no state plan to recruit, retain or increase pay. He says some counties are finding drivers by using Facebook ads and roadside help-wanted banners.

He noted that West Virginia is an older state, and many veteran school bus drivers are retiring, without younger replacements.

“We have a lot of retirees and a lot of our bus drivers have been working in the system for years,” Baber said. “When they retire, we don’t have the folks to fill those positions. We’re seeing the same thing on the technician’s side as well.”

Baber suggested that anyone interested in school bus driver or mechanic work should contact their county school system.

Report: W.Va. is Prepared for Public Health Emergencies

West Virginia is prepared for public health emergencies. That’s according to a report out Thursday.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation says in the 2017 National Health Security Preparedness Index, West Virginia scored 6.7 out of 10 in the state’s capacity to prepare for, respond to, and recover from health risk emergencies. That’s about the national average for preparedness.

Glen Mays is a professor of Health Policy at the University of Kentucky, and he’s been involved in the preparedness index over the past two years. He says West Virginia has been making big improvements – mostly in Community Planning and Engagement for a public health crisis.

“There we measure the strength of communication relationships and coordination mechanisms between government and private sector and community organizations that need to play a role in health security,” Mays said.

He says the June 2016 floods that killed 23 people and left thousands homeless may have caused this sharp uptick in health security preparedness in West Virginia.

But where the state still struggles to keep up with the rest of the nation is in the areas of Health Security Surveillance, being able to detect health hazards quickly, and in Incident and Information Management, or the ability to respond rapidly to crises.

Mays says this is due, in part, to the state’s rural geography, and he says both of those areas require specific resources and state-of-the-art technology.

“West Virginia may need to take a look at its existing technology and infrastructure and see whether there’s some unmet needs there,” he noted, “There may be investments that need to be made and upgrading technology and systems to support those kind of activities.”

By having its strong foundation in Community Planning and Engagement, however, Mays says the state is on the right track for further improvement.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.

Lawmakers Updated on Winter Storm Impacts

A special joint-session of the legislature was held in the House chamber Friday in response to the recent crises caused from this week’s storm. Officials wanted to explain Governor Tomblin’s State of Emergency declaration and to update lawmakers about current conditions and what they can tell their constituents affected by the storm.

Heavy rains began earlier this week that soon turned to heavy snow. Flooding and power outages have been huge problems in many parts of the state, and especially in some southern counties.

Peter Marcum, General Counsel to Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, reminded legislators of some of the different possibilities that could occur during a Governor’s declared State of Emergency. Marcum says the Governor may decide to evacuate residents, provide temporary housing, declare disaster zones, suspend the sale of alcohol or explosives, and may even close schools.

“It’s important that you look at each particular state of emergency declaration, because each emergency is unique, and the governor, the legislature, the local emergency service providers will be offering specific guidance to deal with the emergency,” Marcum said.

Last year, the legislature passed a governor’s bill that required a state of preparedness for emergencies and situations like the current winter storm.

Peter Marcum says this has allowed first responders to act quickly in light of this storm.

“Thanks to a governor’s bill that this body passed last year, we now have the power to declare a state of preparedness,” Marcum explained, “This enables the governor to exercise all of his emergency powers well in advance of an eminent emergency, so that we can marshal resources, put them in place in preparation of problems. It also allows us to warn the public, you need to be on high alert, because a severe winter storm’s coming.”

Major General James A. Hoyer with the West Virginia National Guard says the state of preparedness has helped to get a head start on the crisis.

“From the standpoint of my role and our responsibility as the National Guard, what you provided us last year with the state of preparedness; I think it’s important to understand the benefit to our ability to respond and to the National Guardsmen,” Hoyer said, “By allowing us to move in early, it allows us to put men and women in place ahead of time that makes the response more effective in the front end, which hopefully reduces the time and the cost on the backend.”

This morning in the 20^th district in Mingo County, there was a mudslide that left many residents trapped. Delegate Justin Marcum says he’s very concerned for his constituents in his home district.

“I’ve talked to county commissioner, John Mark Hubbard and Greg Kody Smith, they’re on the ground,” Delegate Marcum explained, “We’re working now to implement the National Guard. We’re trying to bring in other resources. I will praise our county commission; they’ve done a great job with these in the past and moving forward. We’re just praying for these individuals that are trapped with the mudslide. Yeah, we have around fifty people trapped; we have boats and dozers that will be going in. The issue is with the trap, where it’s trapped, the mudslide is coming in, the water is rising. Most places, the water’s receding, but we’ve got the water’s rising here, and that’s our main concern, so the evacuation process is ongoing. Luckily, praise God, we have no injuries at this point.”

Delegate Lynne Arvon of Raleigh County oversees the 31^st District, which has seen a lot of water outages in the last few days. She says her district has been declared a disaster area.

“The portion of Route 3 that is in my district, District 31, goes down Route 3 and to the Boone County line, has been declared a disaster area,” Arvon said, “We now have two deployments of the National Guard in that area, and they are able, people who are stuck in their homes and can’t get out, their roads have been washed out, whatever the cause may be, they can call the emergency services number, which I have put on my House of Delegate page, and the National Guard will be sent to get them. They will go on foot and get them, or deliver water or whatever needs they have.”

After the presentation, Speaker Tim Armstead reminded members as they deal with constituents’ troubles related to the storm, have them turn to local sources of assistance rather than going straight to the state to address their needs.

“I think it’s very important as my discussions with each of you is to just reiterate that when you have constituents that do have needs, whatever those needs are, I think you start with that local, rather than trying to go up to the state level immediately with, when they’re trying to, to get all these things handled from the various counties to go through your county originally is very important. And I know each of us have had, unfortunately flooding and other situations in our districts.” – House Speaker Tim Armstead

Governor Tombin’s State of Emergency continues with updates as weather and flooding in the state continue to be addressed.