Maya Beck, 20, a rising senior at the University of Southern California, is a second lieutenant in the Philipstown Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
The You Matter! Line at the Philipstown Behavioral Health Hub launched last year. It was your idea. What’s behind it?
Many police departments have programs in which elderly people can get an automated call asking, “Are you OK?” I thought that with people experiencing mental-health challenges, such as loneliness among the elderly and depression among younger people, we could get an actual person to make those calls.
Also, The Hub helps people get the help they need in a way that an emergency medical technician cannot, such as connecting them to social services.
What inspired the idea?
The ambulance corps gets 650 to 800 calls a year but most aren’t medical emergencies. We have people complaining that their blood pressure feels high, or they feel weak and ask if we could take them to the hospital. We get people calling to tell us that they’re sad and have suicidal ideation. We also get a lot of “lift assist” calls where we’re helping someone who has fallen. These people need help. But often the EMT is not the best resource for them. The You Matter! Line helps with these less-critical calls so they don’t have to rely on an EMT to get the care they deserve.
How did you get involved in the ambulance corps?
It runs in the family. My mom works in nonprofits. My grandfather ran the Henry Street Settlement House on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, which provided social services, arts and education for lower-income people. During the pandemic, when my Haldane High School classes were being held online, I would skip class to do paperwork at Drug World for the vaccine clinics. I saw how these smaller agencies could make a difference in our community. Plus, living in Cold Spring, I would go past the Philipstown Volunteer Ambulance Corps on Cedar Street every day on my way to school. In October 2021, four days before my 17th birthday, I joined the ambulance corps. At first, I was an attendant, going on 911 calls, grabbing stretchers and handing over the blood pressure cuff. I became an EMT in 2022 after I took the EMT class at Haldane.
Has there been a time that you felt you made a difference in the community?
I had someone who was involved in a motor vehicle collision on Route 9D. She wasn’t seriously injured but was very stressed. Her husband wasn’t there. She had a childcare issue. Her babysitter was a classmate of mine at Haldane. I called her to let her know what was going on. I felt like, if I wasn’t there, no one would have been able to make that community connection. It was a small thing. But I was able to ease her anxieties.
How is the mental health of EMTs these days?
It’s improving. EMTs used to think they were not allowed to feel sad because it’s part of the job. That leads to burnout. But that attitude is changing. We have a peer-led group so that we can discuss our feelings. We realize that it’s OK not to be OK.
