Behavioral Health Programs in the Fire Service
Programs and initiatives
that can help create a dialogue about sensitive issues
Published Friday,
February 15, 2013 | From the March 2013
Issue of FireRescue
Editor’s note: In this
article of a two-article series on firefighter behavioral health, Paul
Bourgeois explains the importance of making behavioral health a priority in the
fire service, starting at the department level, and offers useful information
about programs and initiatives that can help create a dialogue about sensitive
issues. In the other article, Lt. Frank Fennell shares a story he
initially penned in 1995, one year after losing a firefighter colleague to
suicide. Read that
article here. Note: If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, please
visit www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org or call 800/273-TALK.
Additional Coverage:
NFFF Introduces
New Model for First Responder Behavioral Healthcare
When the Great Recession hit and our economy collapsed like a lightweight truss
in an attic fire, it wasn’t long before the fire service was being criticized,
scrutinized and outwardly unappreciated like never before. People who once
loved us now viewed us as money pits with no visible bottom.
Tough economic times not only brought scrutiny from taxpayers, but also
reductions in pay and benefits. Work furloughs, station closures, pay cuts and
layoffs have left the fire service, in effect, dazed and confused. It’s no
wonder why we’re seeing more and more worry, frustration and sometimes even
hopelessness in firehouses. I think many in our industry would agree that we
may very well be in the midst of the most stressful era in fire service
history.
Not the Average Job
Yet the behavioral health crisis among American firefighters is much more than
the after-effect of budget cuts and political backlash. In my opinion, tough
job conditions coupled with the economic and political environment we now live
and work in has seriously compromised firefighters’ ability to effectively
manage stress levels. Think about it: While our firefighters are attempting to
cope with conventional life stressors, they’re simultaneously working a job
where they don’t get much sleep and they sometimes witness very jarring events.
Life’s stressors are difficult enough to manage under the best of
circumstances, but when a person is sleep-deprived and subjected to seeing the
worst of human tragedies, it can be even harder to cope.
The problem: At a time when tension and anxiety seem to be at an all-time high,
a substantial behavioral health crisis is brewing in the fire service and
“critical incident stress” language is being removed from NFPA standards. Why?
Many in the fire service believe that traditional critical incident stress
management (CISM) models inhibit recovery from traumatic events by exposing
firefighters to additional trauma in emotionally charged debriefings. Because
of these shifts, many in the fire service are having trouble visualizing what a
21st-century behavioral health program (BHP) might look like.
Programs & Initiatives Offer Help
My department wasn’t immune from this crisis, and after a several close calls
and the eventual loss of one of our own, a number of us joined together and
took action. From our efforts, several new programs and initiatives were
implemented. Each one had an overwhelmingly positive impact on our people as
well as the overall organizational culture. Quite simply, we were astonished as
we watched our department transform from one that was hurting to one that was
healing.
Family Support Night
One of the first programs we implemented was called Family Support Night. We
knew if we were truly going to have an impact on our people that we had to reach
beyond the firefighter and touch the family unit. Family Support Night was a
2½-hour conference comprising four break-out sessions. Some break-outs session
topics:
• Steps the union was taking to preserve the wages
• Benefits and working conditions of firefighters
• Work and life stress and how the family can work together
to manage stress, hosted by our non-denominational chaplain (who is also a
degreed counselor)
• Overall health and wellness and how simple things like
nutrition, shopping and cooking together could be healthy for the whole family
• A discussion hosted by our Employee Assistance Program
(EAP) provider that covered the free services offered to employees and their
families. One spouse I talked with afterward shared with me that after 25 years
as a firefighter’s wife, she had no idea that their family had access to free
counseling.
You’re Not Alone
As effective as Family Support Night was, we knew there was still more we could
do. One thing that stuck with us was the need to underscore to our people that
they weren’t alone. We wanted them to know that there were people who would do
anything to help them—and this is what inspired the title and content of our
next program, You’re Not Alone (YNA).
YNA was a four-hour out-of-service training event, and it was as powerful a
program as I’ve seen in my 20-year career. The response from our membership was
overwhelming and, without question, the principle factor that made YNA
distinctive was the use of honest, hard-hitting, in-your-face testimonials from
esteemed members of our organization.
To make this happen, we asked two of our members—one a captain with a former
alcohol problem and another a veteran firefighter with a previous drug
dependency—to open up and share with their peers their stories of addiction and
recovery. Further, a firefighter from the Phoenix Fire Department joined us and
gave another amazing testimony related to his struggles with a very serious
alcohol addiction. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own
two eyes, but in a room full of firefighters, when these gentlemen spoke, you
could hear a pin drop.
For more information go to: http://www.firefighternation.com/article/firefighter-safety-and-health/behavioral-health-programs-fire-service
