Longmont Public Safety is beginning a new Facebook series titled Friday Staff Feature. The series was created to highlight Longmont Public Safety staff while highlighting jobs, services and departments that operate behind the scenes.
This week Longmont Public Safety spotlights Omar Norgaisse who is a CORE, or Crisis Outreach Response and Engagement co-responder.
The CORE department responds to 911 calls for services that indicate a mental illness or substance use issue, according to the city of Longmont website. CORE co-responders provided "triage and assessment, crisis de-escalation, field clearances and direct transport to an appropriate destination, which is often not jail or the emergency room."
Longmont Public Safety asked Norgaisse a few questions about himself and his job:
Where are you from, what’s your job, how long have you been doing it?
I’m originally from New York. I’m a co-responder paramedic. I’ve worked in Longmont for about three years, but I’ve been a pre-hospital provider for 25 years
What is your favorite spot in Longmont?
Probably Macintosh Lake. It’s peaceful, really nice and serene. You can just sit back and enjoy your day.
What’s the most common misperception about your job?
I think the most common misperception about my position is that people think that we have the same responsibilities or capabilities as fire department paramedics. We have a lot of the same first-line capabilities. Same education and training. Our role is just a little different. We’re not really geared toward taking people to the hospital. We’re geared toward assessment and initial care and we have an expanded role for community health. Rather than assessing a patient and transporting (them) to an emergency department like a traditional paramedic, we deal with more long-term impacts and care.
What do you wish people knew about your job?
Aside from medical care, we deal with a lot of resource coordination. We’re trying to get people connected to help, paired with some light case management, even though that’s not our position, (we) still do some of that with community members. We’re able to connect with community partners in a way that typical paramedics normally could not.
What is your favorite food of all time?
New York Style Pizza.
Correction: Norgaisse is a CORE co-responder not a member of the LEAD team.
