Bear Soldier First Responders

So that the people may live. 

Bear Soldier First Responders is a volunteer organization that is determined to increase the average life expectancy of our community members. The communities on Standing Rock are rural, and often times emergency personnel are unable to reach the victim of Sudden Cardiac Arrest within the first 10 minutes of collapse. For every minute that passes when a person's heart is not beating, their chances of survival decrease by 7-10 percent. Our proposal is to implement Public Access Defibrillation programs in our community, and others on the Standing Rock Reservation, as well as to increase access to cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) classes, medical first responder, and emergency medical technician curriculum. 

The reasons for one of the lowest life expectancies in the United States are many, but access to technology such as AED's, and Medical First Responders can have a positive effect on the communities we serve over time. We would also like to utilize existing telemedicine technology to allow other health care providers such as Doctors, Nurses, and other Health Care professionals to do "virtual home visits" for our elderly population on Standing Rock. 

Access to Automated External Defibrillation is not widely available in our community. If we had defibrillators, it would be innovative. Partnering with outside organizations, who are able to deliver unbiased, non discriminatory, compassionate care to our elderly population, even if it is through a "virtual home visit" would have an extremely positive effect over time, in our opinion. 

We are a volunteer organization that does not charge a fee to respond to an emergency. However, as all similar organizations do, we will seek to build a self sufficient organization that can create job opportunities for the population. A Community Paramedicine program has been shown  to reduce 911 calls, Emergency Room visits as well as increase access to healthcare. We will build something based on these existing services that are self sufficient, profitable, programs. 

The population of our community is approximately 1000 people. 

To implement Public Access Defibrillation programs in our community, and the other communities on Standing Rock. There are approximately 10-15,00 people who would benefit, by having increased access to AED's. We also plan to increase the access to health care education, specifically; American Heart Association Basic Life Support for Health Care Provider classes, AHA Heartsaver AED class, Medical First Responder course and Emergency Medical Technician courses. 

Formation of Mahto Akicita, or Bear Soldier First Responder volunteer board of directors, which consists of members of our community who will work with the Bear Soldier District government. Bear Soldier is one of the largest communities on the Standing Rock Reservation. 

This is about survival for us, any assistance would be sincerely appreciated. 

We are actively working with the Bear Soldier District government, which is one of the 8 District governments on Standing Rock. We plan to reach out to members of the other districts to ascertain their interest in Public Access Defibrillation programs, as well as CPR classes, and Medical First Responder programs.

We would consider working with the American Heart Association and others, to increase the survival rate in our communities. Hypothetically, doing this should increase the average life expectancy over a period of time. We would like the survival rate to increase by 5%, in five years. We would like to work with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to develop a self sufficient program that can also begin to address the elderly population home health care needs in the community, and the surrounding communities by utilizing existing telemedicine technology.