The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service and trade unions have launched a week long social media campaign to highlight the issue of attacks on the service.
The `Stop the Abuse Now', which is being supported by the NIAS, Unison, Unite, GMB and NIPSA, aims to reduce attacks on crews and highlight that such assaults are not, and should never be, part of the job.
In the past year. there have been 600 reported incidents of abuse and assaults on ambulance personnel.
The reported incidents range from physical abuse, sometimes with weapons, to verbal abuse including personal threats.
The verbal abuse is, on occasion, racist or homophobic in nature.
Michael Bloomfield, NIAS Chief Executive, called upon those "with influence in communities to help us remove the threat of abuse against our staff.
"It is imperative that we make this socially unacceptable and that those who engage in this type of activity are subject to the law and face the consequences of their actions," he said.
"There is absolutely no justification for any assaults on NIAS staff. They deserve our respect and thanks and yet abuse against them is on the rise".
Norman Cunningham, from Unite the Union, called for the introduction of a new call imposing immediate custodial sentences for those found guilty of attacks on health service workers.
"Ambulance staff are the at the forefront of attempts to assist patients when accidents and illnesses strike and as such are entitled to protection from assault whether verbal or physical and to be free from hindrance to carry out their duties," he said.
