Lack of volunteers, cash hurting first-aid squads across Central Jersey

Staff writers Joshua Burd, Mary Ann Bourbeau, Shari Garretson, Alyssa Giachino, Richard Khavkine, Gene Racz, and Suzanne Russell

CENTRAL JERSEY Paula Weiler says there was a time 20 or 30 years ago when people felt like they had to give something back to their community. And a good way to do that was to volunteer.

But that's a thing of the past, she said. She points to a "change in values" as a factor, but said that's only part of the story. Weiler, whose New Jersey State First Aid Council represents more than 400 volunteer rescue and first aid squads, said the main reason is fairly simple.

"It's mostly economic," said Weiler, an executive vice president on the council. "People just need to spend more time working in order to make ends meet, so they have less volunteer time."

It's a universal problem: volunteerism in emergency medical services is on the decline, and local squads have certainly not been spared.

"Right now I beg, borrow and steal (to find personnel)," said Linda "Spanky" Warhaftig, chief of the North Brunswick First Aid and Rescue Squad. "And that is just getting ridiculous."

In Old Bridge, only one of the township's five volunteer squads is adequately staffed, said Scott Nielsen, captain of the Old Bridge First Aid and Rescue Squad. But even his 30-member operation continues to advertise for help.

"We're always all hurting for members," Nielsen said, "Cause you can never have enough. But right now we're doing pretty good."

The dip in EMS volunteers has been pegged as a statewide problem during the last 5 to 10 years, though officials say there are no figures to back up the trend.

A report last year by the state Department of Health and Senior Services called the 25,000-member paid and volunteer work force "the most important factor in providing EMS." And it said that decline was "the biggest challenge that faces EMS now and in the foreseeable future."

"I would venture to say that if you had an ambulance show up, and the people weren't on board, then we'd really be hurting," said David Gruber, senior assistant commissioner of the department. "So it definitely does come down to people. It's people treating people."

Finding time just to train as an EMT is part of the problem, Weiler said. Class time is 120 hours just to become certified in the state, and workers need an additional 48 hours at least every three years in order to maintain their status.

The state's study, meanwhile, cites nearly a dozen reasons for the decline in EMS volunteers including political interference and poor administrative structure among squads.

And while a lack of volunteers has plagued rescue squads everywhere, an equal problem is a decrease in donations.

First aid officials say that public generosity is crucial to covering overhead costs, especially when contributions from municipalities are scarce or limited by law. Municipalities are not required to provide ambulances like they are police and fire departments, Weiler said.

"We must rely on the good nature of the citizens," said Captain Chris Mader of the South Amboy First Aid and Safety Squad. "We host a drive every year, but every year the donations get less and less."

Overhead for the Old Bridge First Aid and Rescue Squad is around $10,000 a month, Nielsen said. Of that, about $2,000 goes toward fuel, partly because they use their vehicles to cover for other squads that are understaffed, sometimes driving to far corners of the large township.

And in South Brunswick, the Monmouth Junction First Aid Squad annually spends between $10,000 and $20,000 on supplies, including up to $8,000 on oxygen, according to squad President Marty Haller.

The volunteer firefighters in Woodbridge Township, who number around 300 across the nine districts, face some of the same challenges as its more than 100 emergency medical volunteers.

Veterans in both professions say that the changes in family life over the last few decades have damaged community-based volunteer operations.

"People don't work in their town," said Dennis Henry, the township's director of public works and a volunteer fireman for 23 years. "A lot of people commute to work now, so it makes it more difficult. They're not in town in the day and when they get home at night they've got chaotic lives so it makes it harder."

When they can afford it, a handful of area towns are simply forced to pay to get around the volunteering problem.

In Perth Amboy, where volunteer EMS has become almost non-existent in the last two years, residents rely on a paid EMS to cover the city because there aren't enough volunteers to handle the workload.

"We're kind of in a flux," said Battalion Fire Chief David J. Volk.

To bolster its own first-response ability, East Brunswick employs Transmed Ambulance Transport to cover the 47,000-population town. The service provides two ambulances five days a week from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. out of its Milltown Road location, along with one ambulance from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. five days a week. Each ambulance has two EMTs trained in same fashion as the township squad members.

The other alternative is to simply look out for your neighbors.

"Whether there are no volunteers available or they are out on other calls, there is never a time when someone will call for an ambulance and no one shows up," said Mader, of South Amboy.

But it may not get any easier for local rescue squads to cope with fewer and fewer volunteers. Weiler, the president of the State First Aid Council, said some communities offer incentives for their members to join, however minimal the impact. Some examples include tuition breaks at the community college or free membership to the local swim club.

Another hope is action at the state level. Gruber, of the state health department, said there is legislation in the works to enact broad changes to the EMS system. He has recommended that volunteering, recruiting and retention be components of the bill, which he said is near a final draft.

"We as a department and the EMS community have to make sure everyone can see how rewarding the job can be," he said. "It's a job that means something and that you can do something with, so we have to make sure that message gets out."