On: NYC pilot tries mental health responders in place ...

[TheSpiceIsLife]

If the EMTs are being paid $12, is it any wonder dispatch is notorious for misevaluating situations?

Deep structural problems.

[bigbubba → TheSpiceIsLife]

I don't follow. Why should EMTs getting ripped off be a factor in dispatch being unable to do more than relay whatever inaccurate or incomplete information they might gave been able to extract from a member of the general public over the phone? If a woman dials 911, says "Help!" then hangs up, how is the dispatcher supposed to accurately convey the situation to an EMT? EMTs should be paid more, but paying EMTs more won't address this problem.

[TheSpiceIsLife → bigbubba]

Sorry, yes, I can see how my comment could be confusing.

I was implying that the call centre worker is probably less credentialed than the EMT.

Yours in a strong point though: dispatch can only pass on what they know, so their misevaluation may not actually be the result of mistakes or a pack of training, and I probably shouldn't have read that meaning in to OPs words.

Thank you.

[Natsu → TheSpiceIsLife]

I don't know what dispatch is paid, but EMTs are not dispatchers so this doesn't make much sense to me.

[dkdk8283 → TheSpiceIsLife]

Paramedics have more training and are paid more. While $12 is pretty low it’s not the ceiling.