by Jim Marshall, M.A., President and Certified EMDR Therapist

Back in 1985 on a visit to my sister, Debbie, a 911 telecommunicator, we went to her workplace at the Waterford Police Station (MI). It was my first "sit-along" and I was fascinated.* She explained her job as we began: "Our responsibility is to gather all the information from the caller we can to decide what the problem is so that we can safely send the right first responders to the scene--whether it be police, fire, or emergency medical..."

Within an hour a call came through from a lady who thought her husband was having a heart attack. I watched and listened carefully as Debbie got the vital information: she recorded the woman's location, identity, and description of what was happening, and quickly dispatched "first responders" to the scene. But she did much more than that: from the moment the call began she also practiced a careful tone, offered comfort and reassurance, guided the woman through steps to assess her husband's condition and increase his chances of survival. Then as they waited for the emergency medical team to arrive, Debbie helped the woman gather her husbands' medications, make plans to notify her children, and get support for their care in case she would not be returning home soon.

After witnessing this call, I asked Debbie an innocent question: "Since that woman called the station and you were the one who answered the call and helped her before anyone else, wouldn't that make you the first responder?" "Well, yeah", Debbie explained, "... technically I suppose but we're not called first responders--that's the professionals and paraprofessionals who arrive first on the scene--they're the first responders." Somehow it seemed she had underestimated her role in the emergency scenario I had just witnessed.

So, twenty years later as I began training 911 telecommunicators I found that I was uncomfortable referring to the police officers, fire fighters, and emergency medical service (EMS) as the first responders. And now, after working with a couple thousand 911 dispatchers and call-takers I understand more fully why this still bothers me. Historically, 911 telecommunicators were not seen as professionals among the rest of the law enforcement and emergency medical response team. They were considered to be performing a clerical duty--just answering the phone. And they were usually equipped accordingly--no madatory training required locally or by the state, typically trained "on the job" and without adequate operating procedures or protocols to manage the most critical calls (such as those involving suicide or domestic violence).  

By contrast, for decades police, fire fighters, and EMS have been formally trained in carefully designed and regulated courses within academies leading to skill testing and proficiency examinations hopefully resulting in certification. These emergency responders operated according to established protocols and procedures. Leaders in the field, as well as legislators, policy makers, and training organizations have long recognized that the interventions performed by these on-the-scene responders are complex and the stakes too great to be left to chance. Clearly they had to be fully prepared to meet these challenges. So funding for training and program development, and policies guiding these professions, were all put in place.

In the last few years, the news media have highlighted errors made by 911 telecommunicators' resulting in deaths and increased tragedy. One very recent example is  the Readers Digest article "911 Nightmare". The lead-in to the story states: "wrong addresses, dismissive dispatchers, and crossed signals. Our police response system is in crisis, and the cost can be measured in lives."**  While this article rightly points to the need for standardized training as a key preventive measure, the media and the public are inclined to blame the individual dispatcher's who must then live with a sense of enormous failure. And the heroic, effective interventions performed by emergency telecommunicators every day in our nation go unnoticed.

But there is a serious problem that can't be explained away as due primary to bad employees. The root issue is systemic : it goes back to the underestimating of the pivotal role telecommunicators play in crisis intervention, and thus failing to establish them as professionals who deserve to be prepared and supported accordingly. It is time to acknowledge the obvious: 911 telecommunicators are the First Responders to citizens seeking emergency help. Their role requires uncommon personal strength, intelligence, skills, training, as well as equipping with standardized crisis call procedures and protocols. Across the nation our 911 centers strive to do their best in equipping their telecommunicators. But their success will depend on the investment of the entire emergency response community  respecting them as fellow professionals.

Only recently have law enforcement, firefighters, and EMS joined with 911 professionals in recognizing that the work performed by emergency telecommunicators is also complex, high risk, and a vital part of the multidisciplinary emergency response the public relies on in crisis. National, state, and local 911 leaders have worked diligently to launch directives to create standardization in professional competency, training, and the adoption of mandatory protocols for best practice. The creation of the Emergency Number Professional (ENP) credential is one such step in the right direction--it captures and designates the qualifications one should possess to be recognized as an expert and leader among 911 telecommunicators.

All these efforts are important elements of building and upholding a fully mature profession. But going forward together we--the various agencies that fund, staff, operate, and train our nation's 911 telecommunicators--must be guided by  the recognition that the names we give to things matters. If we call a problem small, we offer small solutions. If we perceive a worker's role within a system to be small, we give them small attention and resources to do their jobs. To be accurate, 911 emergency telecommunicators are First Responders. Their tasks are psychologically and intellectually demanding and just as  vital to the lives of the public in crisis as the On-scene Responders they support. So, if we ask the old question "what's in a name?" hopefully we can offer a new answer when it comes to the labels we use to characterize 911 telecommunicators. By recognizing them as first responders we can more clearly recognize and respect their value to the entire emergency response team in saving lives and give them what they need to succeed.
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* This story reliably captures the essence of the dialogs that have occurred through time between Debbie and me rather than a precise retelling of facts from that first visit to her 911 center.
**Readers Digest: November 2009 edition, pp. 57-63. To read the full article click here.