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Many mental health conditions, including depression, substance use disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and even suicidal ideation, are more common among first responders. First responders undergo intensive training to prepare for their physically demanding and potentially dangerous jobs — but are they prepared mentally and emotionally? Employers have an opportunity, and an obligation, to take a proactive approach to protecting the mental health of their teams working on the front lines.

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As September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, this article focuses on the exposure and affect regarding those who have been charged with protecting the population’s health and preserving a community’s population—namely, first responders.

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The aftermath of a traumatic experience can be a confusing thing for many of us. How can you identify signifiers of PTSD when it’s normal to have some of them early on? Are you even sure that what you have been through has affected you all that much? Is there something small, or something larger lurking underneath the surface?

Dr. Jennifer Wild, associate professor of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford, lays out a few basic approaches to dealing with what may be a traumatic experience in a healthy and balanced way, and how to recognize signifiers that need further help to get you back on track.

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This began as a research assignment from Fitch & Associates’ Ambulance Service Manager Program, which is designed to provide new leaders and managers with an up-to-date curriculum of the industry’s best practices and foremost challenges.

We chose to research the prevalence and severity of EMS provider stress in the workplace. We created a survey to address something we termed “critical stress” (CS) and also looked at providers who’ve either contemplated or attempted suicide. Additionally, we attempted to measure how effective current support mechanisms are from the provider’s point of view, and what can be improved through these support institutions. Lastly, we took a snapshot of the various cultures of EMS throughout the country as they pertain to provider support for mental health and looked for any connections between an EMS provider’s stress level and the associated culture in which they are immersed.

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Workers in EMS have been facing health and wellness challenges since the inception of modern-day EMS. It is only in recent years that the industry has begun to attempt to study the causes and workable solutions to these problems. It is only through education, willingness to study, acceptance of the problems, and a change in the culture of EMS providers that we are going to reverse the damage the industry can do.

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Taylor Shearer reviews mental health issues in EMS, its factors and offers suggestions on how to better manage mental well-being.

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In the words of legendary motivational speaker Zig Ziglar, “You cannot solve a problem until you acknowledge that you have one….” That might seem obvious, but Ziglar takes it one step further. After we recognize a problem, he says, we should “take responsibility for solving it.” And make no mistake: We have a correctional officer mental health problem, and we all bear the responsibility for solving it.

So, what if we spoke out loud the truths many of us already know? Imagine a corrections academy somewhere in the United States. A class of 30 eager new recruits are seated at their desks, uniforms sharply pressed, shoes polished and shining. The academy director enters the room.

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I sat in a therapist’s office angry and sick to my stomach. He told me I was going to watch a strange device and tap my forehead while I relived The Incident. I thought, “This is bullshit.”

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Andy Elwood knows first-hand the mental strain that emergency services and SAR personnel are under, and the effect this can have on their wellbeing. His focus now lies on delivering training for mental health first aid courses.

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From Intime software, an article geared towards 9-1-1 operators with information on techniques and ideas you can start right now to help mitigate the effects of stress.