NE Colorado RETAC

07/08/2026

NOCO Style features the work of First Responder Trauma Counselors, whose founders, Ed and Joanne Rupert, have spent more than 20 years removing the stigma around behavioral health care for first responders. Today, 34 public safety and frontline medical agencies sponsor no-cost care for their personnel and spouses, backed by 24/7 crisis response and a nonprofit arm serving rural and volunteer departments across Northern Colorado. This is the kind of responder support our region's system depends on. Read the story:

First Responder Trauma Counselors – After decades on the front lines, a Timnath couple works to improve mental health among first responders

05/19/2026

We're very excited about what Paramedic Asmus will do with the Northeast Colorado Regional Peer Support Team. Happy EMS Week!

EMS Week Monday
Read about a Colorado EMS organization that has invested mental health, and a leader carrying its torch—the NE Colorado Regional Peer Support Team and City of Yuma Paramedic Jolissa Asmus, respectively. 🔽

05/17/2026

EMS Week begins today, and across our region, the men and women who answer the call deserve to be recognized.

Rural EMS is not a backup system. It is often the only system. The clinicians and agencies our RETACs support provide emergency care across vast distances, in communities where the nearest hospital may be an hour away. That takes skill, preparation, and neighbors who trust each other.

This week, we celebrate them. May 17–23.

05/06/2026

Wisconsin EMT instructor goes into cardiac arrest mid-class. His students — trained, calm, ready — bring him back.

This is what preparedness looks like when it works.
In our region, NCRETAC exists so that rural Colorado communities have the same fighting chance. Trained providers. Coordinated systems. People who know what to do when it counts.

The training isn't glamorous. The outcomes are.

Read the full story:

Karl Arps was demonstrating the signs of a heart attack during a training course when he really had one, and went into cardiac arrest.

04/18/2026

This week, NCRETAC joins the national public safety community in recognizing National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.

Every coordinated EMS response in Northeast Colorado begins the same way — with a telecommunicator. They take the call, triage the information, initiate the dispatch, and in many cases begin pre-arrival care instructions before a single unit has moved.

The paramedics, EMTs, and first responders who serve this region do not function without them. That is not a courtesy acknowledgment. It is a clinical and operational fact.

To every telecommunicator serving the nine counties of Northeast Colorado: NCRETAC recognizes the expertise, discipline, and commitment that your work demands — and the system-level value you deliver every single day.



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04/17/2026

This opinion piece says plainly what many of us in EMS and rural health have known for a long time: EMS is essential. In Colorado, that recognition is overdue, and the case for it is practical, urgent, and rooted in how care actually reaches people across rural communities. House Bill 26-1238 designates EMS, including ambulance and air ambulance services, as essential services in Colorado. It now just awaits signature by Governor Jared Polis!

Thank you to Representative Dusty A Johnson for her collaboration with the NCRETAC and support for helping move this issue forward in a meaningful way. Thank you as well to NCRETAC Directors Travis Freeman and Keriann Josh for their leadership and continued work in strengthening rural EMS systems.

Rural EMS does not exist on the margins of the healthcare system. In many communities, it is the front door to care. Recognition should match reality.

By Dusty A. Johnson Currently, emergency medical services (EMS) clinicians such as EMTs and paramedics are not listed as essential in Colorado, and that is not OK. A few weeks ago, the Colorado House of Representatives unambiguously passed a bill to designate emergency medical services as an essenti...

04/11/2026

Congratulations, Kristie Skala!
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Aims Community College’s Kristie Skala recognized as EMS instructor of the year

04/10/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DyHyaDH4p/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Some names should never be forgotten.

Behind every uniform is a life, a family, a story. Today, we honor three of our own…

These were members of our EMS family—providers who showed up for others on their worst days, who carried the weight of this job, and who made a difference in ways that will never fully be measured.

They were more than their uniforms.
They were teammates, friends, family.
They mattered. They still matter.

We say their names. We remember their lives. We carry them with us.

💙

We also know their stories are not the only ones.

If you have lost a loved one in EMS to su***de or mental health struggles, we would be honored to remember them alongside our own. We are creating a space to share their stories, their impact, and who they were beyond the job.

If you feel comfortable, please send us a photo and a short bio.
Let’s make sure they are never forgotten.

NoCo SOL Fund | EMS Strong | Northern Colorado | Support EMS | First Responder Wellness | Carry Them With Us | Say Their Names