In times of trouble, Kelly Blanch’s calm and controlled voice can be a lifeline.
The 10-year 911 emergency dispatcher veteran has helped deliver babies, sent ambulances and fire crews racing to emergencies and been an unseen guardian for thousands of Central Albertans a three-digit phone call away.
It’s a job that Blanch has come to love, first in Grande Prairie and for the last three years in Red Deer, where she and 15 others are responsible for making sure calls get routed to 45 fire and ambulance services. Police calls are passed to RCMP dispatchers.
“I like the variety. I like the shift work. I like answering the phone and not knowing what you’ll get.”
Blanch typically works with two other dispatchers during the busiest times of day and the same three usually work together. It builds a rapport and the teamwork that allows them to quickly jump to help each other to get help to callers quickly and by the fastest route.
“You have to have a Type A personality,” said Blanch. “You have to be a driver-type personality and you have to take control of your callers.”
As part of their training, dispatchers learn how to calm hysterical callers and get the vital location information that will get help on its way.
Despite the frightening scenarios that unfold on the other end of the line, hysterical callers are relatively few.
“It’s a small proportion, believe it or not. You’d think people would be phoning and freaking all the time,” she said.
Dispatchers, like many in emergency services, have a few calls they never forget. She recalls handling a call while working at a different dispatch centre from a youngster whose mother had been assaulted.
“I can hear him saying, ‘Mommy, are you OK?’
“Little kids are my sensitive point.”
But those kinds of heart-wrenching calls are only part of the job.
“It’s not always a bad job. It’s actually a great job. Every day there is something funny.” And there’s her first telephone baby delivery. It happened after she was a dispatcher for about five years.
“When I was done I was just so excited. It just went like clockwork.” No, the parents didn’t name their little girl after her, she replies with a laugh.
Carla Lachman, 30, is a former Olds volunteer firefighter and was a STARS dispatcher for four years before coming to Red Deer six years ago.
“I guess I just found something I love. I love the people here and I love working with the guys. I love being part of the team with emergency services,” said the married mother of three young children.
To Lachman, becoming a dispatcher allowed her to use her training to help respond to emergencies, although not as directly as she once did. “I just wanted to keep my foot in it.
“I like being out at the accident scene. Dispatch still allows me to be part of the call.” Not surprisingly, the most critical part of being a dispatcher is knowing your territory. For Red Deer’s 911 emergency dispatchers it is huge — extending as far west as the B.C. border, north to Ponoka, south and east past Drumheller.
“We’re all about the maps,” said Blanch, waving a hand at the maps covering the wall and which can also be called up at the touch of a few keys on one of four monitors in front of each dispatcher. GPS coordinates have helped make the job easier in many cases, but the maps remain critical.
“You need to know landmarks. And every little community has them.” When a caller from Delburne says they are on Hwy 21 you need to know that some people in the area mean the old Hwy 21.
“That’s part of our training to know the funny little glitches in our area.”
By the time a dispatcher gets off the phone, they should know how to drive to the scene themselves, she said.
Blanch, who is married with grown children, hopes to dispatch for another 10 years. “This job suits my personality.”
One of the aspects she likes is the go-hard-and-rest shift schedule. Full-time dispatchers work 10-hour day shifts, or 14-hour night shifts on a four days on and four off schedule.
Many dispatchers are trained as emergency medical technicians or emergency medical responders and one is a paramedic. Dispatchers receive training through courses in emergency medical dispatch and emergency fire dispatch. Those skills are transferable to any dispatch centre in the world.
In recognition of dispatchers, the City of Red Deer declared April 11-17 Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.
pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com