Sometimes emergencies occur in a public place where you may not know anyone. Sometimes you or a loved one may be unconscious and unable to communicate.

In an emergency situation, our paramedics treat you immediately based on your symptoms. But members of Police Services, hospital workers, and other emergency personnel may need to contact your next of kin in order to notify them of your circumstances or to obtain information about your medical history.

You can assist emergency services enormously by taking part in the ICE program. “ICE” stands for “in case of emergency.” The program involves adding an entry to the contact list of your cellphone under the label “ICE”, with the names and phone numbers of those who should be reached in an emergency. If you want to input more than one contact name, simply enter ICE1, ICE2, or add a name to the entry, such as “ICE – Dad” or “ICE – Sarah.”

The ICE campaign was launched in the United Kingdom in April 2005, and it rapidly gained worldwide momentum after the July terrorist bombings in London. TEMS has been actively promoting this program with Toronto Fire and Police Services since 2006.

In critical situations, the ability to swiftly find your next of kin will be immensely useful.

Help us to help you by adding “ICE” to your cellphone.

Toronto EMS has created an information card that you can download and print, in which you can fill out the fields and keep with you at all times in case of an emergency. Click here to download the printable pdf file.