Since its conception, the fire service has been operated on one global idea. When something happens, we react and respond. This principle makes sense given the reason why fire departments across the United States and the world were established.
In the beginning our mission was simply this: when something was on fire, we went and put it out. As time went on, society changed and technology advanced. We reacted and responded to alarms, smells and odors, motor vehicle collisions, medical emergencies, and various other rescues.
Eventually, the need arose to learn more about what we were engaging in on the job to be better prepared and to operate in a safer manner with the hope of reducing loss of life.
So began the tradition of training for the work we do. The fire service started small with simple evolutions with fire hoses, ladders, and other related drills.
The Evolution of Training
By the end of World War II, it became increasingly obvious that our jobs were going to involve more than just putting the wet stuff on the red stuff. Soon after, our duties on the job shifted again with a recognized need for inspections, code enforcement, pre-plans, and tactics and strategies.
Whether it was training or building inspections, the fire service began proactively approaching what we did for work. What started as an occasional weekly training on different firefighting methods blossomed into bettering our skills on every aspect of what our jobs entail. Making sure a building had its address on the outside and the right number of exits, evolved into developing codes for how a building was constructed and with what material.
Proactively we take steps to be better prepared and ready for whatever the next call for service may be. We immerse ourselves in all the available means to operate in a safer, more efficient manner, and push legislation and laws to help prevent a greater loss of life. This has come to be expected as part of our jobs not only in the fire service but the other pillars of the first responder community.
So why aren’t we doing the same with our mental wellness?
Mental Wellness Issues
Not until well into the 2000s did society really begin to understand and accept that trauma, and more specifically post-traumatic stress existed. This was largely due to the number of soldiers coming back from combat in the Middle East with PTSD. Now, almost a quarter of a century into the new millennium, the fire service has acknowledged that we have a mental health and suicide crisis. The crisis is so severe that firefighters are two-to-three times more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty. That’s a statistic even the saltiest of firefighters should not be OK with.
So, what is being done now to combat this situation?
Awareness of post-traumatic stress is at a never-before-seen level. More and more discussions are happening about the long-term effects of unresolved trauma. Peer support groups/teams are popping up all over the country and even the world. Critical Incident Stress Meetings (CISM) or debriefings are being utilized more and more. However, for the most part the fire service is still being reactive to mental health issues.
CISM’s are used after a critical incident occurs. Most peer support groups are used only when a member has a major situation with which they need help. We get our members the help they need, typically, only once the situation has gotten dire. This is a reactive mindset, which is important and needs to be in place. However, more needs to happen before being reactive is necessary.
Embracing Proactive Response
What does being proactive with our mental health look like for the fire service?
Much like what we do to be prepared for the duties of our job, we need to train. We need to be present for and hear the lived experience of how others successfully managed their mental health, specifically PTSD. We also need to learn more of the science behind why trauma affects us the way it does, as most of us are logical thinkers and knowing how something works pleases our brains.
Departments, organizations, governments, and even unions need to understand the importance of what mental wellness training can do for the first responder. These entities need to invest the time and money into bringing in proactive resources that could possibly save a member from needing a crisis intervention.
In the end, taking better care of the employee’s mental wellness will result in better retention. Better retention will result in more applicants showing up to work for the organization.
Fight/Flight
The biggest obstacle to healing from the trauma we encounter in the fire service is no one is showing us how we turn off our fight or flight instincts when we are off duty. Basic training and our time in the academy teach us how to be on point, respond, and react to a high stress situation and operate at a higher level. What isn’t taught is how we live in the normal nervous system operating limits, situations that don’t require a task force response for a single company operation.
We work a job where we are constantly exposed to trauma, with no real training on how to correctly process what we are experiencing. It typically isn’t until we are in crisis that we try and intervene. Now is the time that both chiefs and administrators along with rookies and line officers demand more training on how to live a more mentally healthy lifestyle.
Train, Train, Train
Learning what trauma, post-traumatic stress, and suicide look like and how they manifest is the first step. Showing how to navigate the path to healing is second. Continuing to support the membership with resources, presentations, conferences, webinars, and other training is the third.
We need to participate in mental wellness training to the point where it becomes part of our muscle memory to live a proactively mentally healthier life.
Let’s train for our mental wellness like we train for the tasks of our jobs.
Train until we can’t get it wrong.
Endnote:
Luster, Rodney, PhD, LPC, First Responders and Mental Health: When Heroes Need Rescuing, Psychiatric Times, September 9, 2022, https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/first-responders-and-mental-health-when-heroes-need-rescuing.
