Amish health and safety at center of Ohio EMA gathering

A quartet of people invested in Holmes County and Amish Country were center stage during this year’s Emergency Manager’s Association of Ohio Winter Conference, offering advice concerning Amish health and safety for emergency manager agents and many other Ohio leaders throughout the state.

Jason Troyer, Holmes County EMA director, joined Stephanie Norman, former Ohio State Highway Patrol member; Marcus Yoder, executive director of Behalt; and Amy Seward, EMS executive director of Knox County, and they presented Amish Health & Safety Day about health and safety issues surrounding Plain People communities living in Ohio.

Troyer serves as the co-chair of the education committee for the Ohio EMA, where he also serves as the president-elect.

He said it may come as a surprise to many people to know that out of Ohio’s 88 counties, 58 of them are inhabited with Amish communities.

“Yes, the presentation was geared toward the Amish community, but the concept can be geared toward any special population,” Troyer said. “It’s about getting to know their beliefs, who they are, and how can we best include them in our training and planning for every community.”

He said whether it is welcoming and partnering with growing Hispanic, Ukrainian or any other developing population of people in any given area, these concepts can be applied.

He said it just so happens both he and Seward have a large population of Amish, which is why they chose to go that route with the presentation.

Yoder began the presentation with a history of the Anabaptist and Mennonite faith and the differences between the various orders within the Plain People community.

“A lot of people in the state of Ohio, if they don’t have Amish in their area, they will just look at it and assume they are all the same in their beliefs,” Troyer said. “Core-wise, they may be, but there are a variety of differences between the orders.”

Norman then offered insight into what Amish health and safety entails in uniting the Plain People community with the English communities to which they are integrated.

She noted the importance of local partnerships and how connecting with and getting input from local Amish leaders is imperative for health and safety issues where e-bikes, buggies, scooters and pedestrians along major thoroughfares are common.

“Stephanie really stressed the importance of building those partnerships and how those partnerships have grown and evolved in our area,” Troyer said. “There are so many more Amish communities cropping up throughout Ohio, and more people are needed to successfully collaborate together.”

He said connecting with local law enforcement, police and fire departments, EMS, EMA, the highway department, hospitals, the county health department and more continue to be of great importance.

Troyer and Seward then tied it all together by speaking about what a county or community needs to do to plan and provide the best possible health and safety for the Plain People communities.

He said one obstacle is a lack of cellphones for many of the Amish constituents, who may have no cellphones or older flip phones to receive emergency weather reports and other notifications the EMA directors may put out through an app.

Another topic was dealing with the National Weather Service and how to best get critical information out to all the Amish community members.

“In Holmes County the importance of tornado sirens is extremely important because it provides another avenue of providing information,” Troyer said.

He said there were three basic takeaways the quartet wanted to portray to those in attendance.

The first was to ensure EMA directors and county leaders know the community.

The second was to build relationships by identifying Amish bishops, deacons and business owners who can help create an avenue of discussion.

The third was to educate the partners in the professional realm such as EMS, law enforcement, fire departments, health departments and more.

“If you have people who don’t normally work with the Amish population, one of the biggest things — for instance, in situations like in EMS — is differences in culture,” Troyer said.

He said in situations such as accidents, decisions are usually made by an individual as to how to respond. For the Amish community, consulting with the entire family is of great importance.

“Most likely, English people aren’t going to call their parents and siblings when making decisions during an accident, but for many Amish families, the entire family is often involved in the decision-making process,” Troyer said. “More likely to do things slowly but the right way. It’s about making a good, right decision.”

He said as a veteran EMT personnel member, he has seen this in action many times.

Troyer said while some communities may not have Amish in their counties, the Plain People do travel and visit, and therefore many of these concepts are important to understand.