Pediatric Emotional Distress Reference System (PEDRS) Mobile App.

The Pediatric Emotional Distress Reference System (PEDRS) serves as a quick reference guide to be employed in the field. The guide identifies common distress reactions by developmental level with age-appropriate calming and distraction activities. The PEDRS is cross-referenced with the BroselowTM and HandTevyTM weights and colors to help medical providers determine approximate a child's age when that information is not available. This electronic version was created to allow providers to better access the guide.

Get the PEDRS mobile app now!

Follow these steps to get the app:

1. Visit https://app.pedrs.org/ from your smartphone or mobile device.

2. Install the app by using your browser's "Add to home screen" feature.

3. You're done!

If you need help on adding the app to your home screen, follow these directions.

About the app

Supporting children in distress can pose particular challenges for providers, whether delivering emergency medical services, responding to a disaster, or providing daily care. Children have unique physical differences, developmental needs, and distress reactions that providers may find difficult to address. They can trigger responders' own emotions, interfering with their information processing and decision-making abilities. Providers have reported that their own emotional responses, their lack of experience working with kids, and the emotions of family members can negatively impact the quality of care that they are able to provide when working with children in distress.

The Engage - Calm - Distract curriculum developed was developed by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to address these challenges. With it comes the Pediatric Emotional Distress Reference System (PEDRS). This app version was developed in collaboration with the University of Colorado.

How to use the app

The PEDRS mobile app has a simple interface where the user can select a child's developmental level and then view corresponding information related to the child's potential reactions to distress, calming techniques, and distraction ideas.

Installing the app to your phone for offline use

After opening the app in your browser, you can install it to your phone's "home screen". For Google Chrome + Android users, the installation option will appear at the bottom of the screen when you first load the app. For Safari + iOS users, the installation option is inside Safari's "share" menu.

Support

If you are having trouble with the app, please try the following:

  • read all of the instructions on this page again
  • try restarting your device
  • 'clear the cache' for this website and also for https://app.pedrs.org/ - you can find instructions on how to clear the cache for your browser by Googling
  • try uninstalling the app, clearing the cache, and then re-installing the app
  • ask a friend, family member, child, or someone else who is good at troubleshooting these things

If you still have a problem, need to report a bug, or would like to contact any member of the team, please email lynn.garst@state.co.us

About the authors

The PEDRS mobile app was created by a team of public health officials and pediatric behavioral health experts. Each of them is listed here:

Lynn Garst, M.Ed.

Pediatric Disaster Coordinator

Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment

Jenaya Gordon, MA, CCLS, NCC

Manager, Child Life Department

Children's Hospital Colorado

Ezekiel Peters, Esq., NRP

Deputy Chief Paramedic

International Association of Emergency Medical Services Chiefs (IAEMSC)

Paul Embleton, PsyD

Software Developer; Psychologist

National Mental Health Innovation Center

University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus