We Cannot Wait For An Emergency To Get Organized

We share a real church scenario that raises urgent questions about consent, seizure action plans, and what to do when a child with intensive needs arrives without a legal guardian. We walk through how we think about rescue meds, emergency services, and the simple policies that help families trust our care. 

• a blended-family situation that exposes gaps in emergency planning 
• seizure disorder basics in a church setting, including rescue meds and a seizure plan 
• consent challenges when the parent or legal guardian is not in the building 
• what an EMT confirms about life-threatening emergencies versus planned care 
• practical paperwork ideas like consent forms, med info, and where to store them 
• expanding safety policies to youth trips, events, and other drop-off environments 
• why being over-prepared supports trust, access, and gospel accessibility 

If you want to dive deeper on your own, you can check out the indispensable-people blog or my books on Amazon called The Indispensable Kid or Gospel Accessibility and the Indispensable People.

Transcript

Mission And Disability Stats

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hey, hey, my name is Tracy Coral and welcome to Indispensable People. I'm a pastor, a teacher, a missionary, a mom, a wife, and I believe that every person should have access to the gospel so that they can know Christ, grow in him, and serve him with the gifts that he has given. Over 65 million Americans have a disability. That's 15 to 20% of every community. And over 85% of those individuals do not attend church. 90% of pastors believe that they are a disability-friendly church, but only 20% of parents and families agree. Let's dive deep into hard topics, big questions, perceptions, stereotypes, and so much more.

Why Policies Matter For Intensive Needs

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Hey, hey, and welcome to this episode of Indispensable People. Today we're going to be chatting about some policies and procedures considerations as we look further into more intensive needs of the individuals that we serve.

A Family Situation That Raises Questions

SPEAKER_00 1:14

So just something that I came across in my own church over the last couple of weeks. We have the opportunity to serve lots of different families. We have blended families, we have single moms, we have families with mom and dad. But we came across a situation a couple weeks ago where a family came to our church with four beautiful girls, and a gentleman brought them. The gentleman was three out of the four girls' dad. And then one other was his girlfriend's daughter. And so he brought her, and they are a beautiful bunch of girls, super sweet, and we're excited that they have chosen to spend some time with us. However, one of the girls has some pretty intensive needs. She diagnosed with CP, also has some sensory potential issues. We're still getting to know them. But the main intensive is a seizure disorder that she has, and there it requires a rescue med and emergency procedures, and she has a seizure plan and all that great stuff. And dad came prepared with that. However, it gave us some questions to ask.

Consent And Seizure Plans Without A Guardian

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Okay. So part of the seizure plan that we would have to consider is if we had to call emergency services. And then I went on to thinking about consent and the fact that he isn't her parent or her guardian. And therefore that could, you know, give us some problems. And I wanted to be sure that we're doing the right things. And if we were to come across that emergency, you know, that we were handling things properly. And there are lots of questions when it comes to this, where people will say, Well, you know, why isn't mom coming? Or, you know, all of that kind of stuff. And here's the thing maybe the boyfriend is being an absolutely incredible human and he is trying to give mom a little bit of a break. And so bringing her to church while mom gets to have some rest time at home, I'm not sure of the full story. Again, we're still getting to know this family. And I just really wanted to be sure that if we had to come across an emergency, that we were doing all of the right things. So we contacted a friend of mine that is an EMT. And so, you know, asked all the questions. And of course, he said that in the case of a life-threatening situation, obviously consent isn't required. They would do whatever they needed to do in the case of that. However, because she has a seizure plan, then we would need to have consent. So we're aware that there's a situation. We're aware that there may be some emergency services required. So we could have some of that information ahead of time and prepared and provided. So that's an easy consideration, right? I can reach out to that gentleman and let him know that I need some paperwork from mom and we could put something together with her seizure plan and consent form. Because it also made me think in general about okay, well, then there's medications on top of that. And that's one of the things that, you know, emergency services would ask about. So just making sure that we have all of our ducks in a row, because listen, as we have come up with this with this child, that doesn't mean that there aren't multiple others and other considerations that that we should have really taken into consideration prior to this.

Emergency Prep Is For Everyone

SPEAKER_00 5:26

So a lot of people will say, you know, or be uh concerned or afraid of potential emergency services needed. First of all, here's what we need to know. People with disabilities are not the only people that incur or need emergency help of some sort. A 50-year-old man could have a heart attack at any time. There are policies and procedures that we have in place at our church. We know where our medical personnel are in the church. We know, you know, where our nurses are sitting, we know who, you know, on which Sundays who's there and who's not. There are other things, you know, we have an AED, we have these kinds of things and preparations to make for our volunteers and things like that. This is just one piece of the puzzle that I didn't think of, which made me go, okay, so there are some things we need to make sure that we have. And how much further should we go for anyone else, you know, that might be at the church? And I'm not saying I'm not going out and looking for a list of, you know, medications and pre-authorizations and all of that kind of stuff. That is not something that we're doing. And this is a case of right now the parent or legal guardian isn't in the building. So there are other considerations that I need to make. When I have my summer camp that I'm a part of, those are all information that we ask. And it's part of registration. We know what medications people are on, we have pre-authorizations. We have all of that stuff because parents and guardians are not with us at that time. In a church setting, typically you do have the parent with you. However, that made me think into, you know, things like youth and, you know, events that they might go to or be a part of. So extra things that we need to cover. But also knowing that we already have policies and procedures in place that whenever the youth goes on a trip or to an event or something like that, they have parent permission slips and things like that in place. But I was I was thinking, you know, maybe there should be some extra information included in that, such as medications or, you know, different kinds of, you know, this is my preferred treatment, you know. I think of sports forms that are filled out, you know, when your kids play sports that you have to agree to and all that other kind of stuff or disagree to, but they have that paperwork to land on whenever those questions arise.

Local Research Youth Forms And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 8:19

Here's the deal. I am in one state, and this is information that I found for my local area. That is research that I would suggest you look into with medical personnel or EMTs or things like that in your area. But just going, okay, let's go the extra mile, let's take into consideration some potentials and possibilities of what could happen. And do you have this particular situation where either mom and dad do a drop-off or there might be an occasion that they wouldn't be there, whether it be for an event that like the youth group is going on or something like that, that you need to take those extra precautions and preparations to have the proper information and the proper signage. Again, it's not something that's gonna happen all the time. It's not gonna be something that you're gonna come up against regularly, but it is something that really did make me think. So hopefully it gives you an opportunity to think because we want to do our best to have proper and excellent care and considerations for whatever situations might come our way.

Overprepared Care Builds Trust

SPEAKER_00 9:30

No one has ever been sorry for being over-prepared for any situation. And when we're prepared, we make sure that people have access to the gospel, that they feel that they are left in a trusted and safe space for those who don't know everything, but are prepared the best that they can be. So get prepared, ask those questions, and see what might be required in your area. I can't claim to have all the answers. I can't claim to know all the things, but here's what we are gonna do. We're gonna keep this conversation going. We're gonna make the accessible gospel available to individuals with disabilities in our churches and in our communities so that every person has the opportunity to know Christ, to grow in him, and to serve him with the gifts that he is given.

Keep The Conversation Going

SPEAKER_00 10:21

If you want to dive deeper on your own, you can check out the indispensable people blog or my books on Amazon called The Indispensable Kid or Gospel Accessibility and the Indispensable People.