A dictionary defines training as, “to
develop or form the habits, thoughts, or behavior of (a child or other
person) by discipline and instruction.” The fire service does an
excellent job in training firefighters through academies on fire
behavior and fireground operations. But the majority of fire academies
and fire departments lack training on behavioral health.
Consider this: A firefighter comes up to
you because he wants to talk. He proceeds to tell you that things have
been unbearable at home. Plus, a recent tragic call has made this member
turn to alcohol to ease his pain and problems. In fact, two weeks ago
while drinking he had a gun on his lap and had thoughts about suicide.
Would you be prepared for that situation?
Given the tragedies we respond to,
dealing with pain and loss of those we serve can become unbearable. In
addition, we are not immune to the environmental impact of our economy,
which can include credit card debt, spouses who lose jobs, family
members who are sick or any other situations that can add stress to our
lives. All across the U.S., from big cities to rural communities, from
career to volunteer departments we are losing good people to depression,
addictions, behavioral health problems and suicide because of our lack
of training, our lack of understanding our emotions and our fear of
going against our culture when it comes to helping our brothers and
sisters or asking for help for ourselves.
We would risk our lives to save our
brothers and sisters when on the fireground. The motto of “covering your
back” is in full force. Yet, when collecting my firefighter suicide
reports, or talking to fire chiefs when I validate my numbers, I have
noticed numerous comments that read the same time after time. “If only
we would have seen the signs and symptoms” or, we saw how they were
acting but didn’t take any action. Suicide.org estimates that 75% of
completed suicides displayed warning signs. (http://suicide.org/suicide-warning-signs.html)
Some studies suggest the percentages might be higher. The point being
that every fire department needs to instill behavioral health training
to combat the negative aspects of our job.
One question many fire chiefs, village
administrators and local union presidents will ask is: Who and how are
we going to pay for training our members? It is a legitimate question,
especially for major cities with thousands of firefighters. In addition,
what about the rural departments whose annual budgets are sometimes
only $5,000 or less? Start by training in segments, not unlike a
five-year projection plan that most fire departments have. Ask for a
train-the-trainer program to help teach for larger departments. In
smaller departments, if you want outside training, sometimes businesses
will pay for training especially if they can write off the training as a
donation to their local fire department. Also, do not forget about
grants that are available for training. A local fire department received
grant money and brought me in to present to all three of their shifts
with two workshops a day. There are numerous ways to find both the time
and money towards this specialty training. I do caution though that if
you decide to bring in behavioral health training it would be very
beneficial that the instructor is highly experienced in working with
firefighters and is established in behavioral health training.
Another key of behavioral health training
for firefighters is there must be a buy-in from the top. I have
presented many workshops where the firefighters truly enjoyed the
learning aspect but left frustrated comments on the evaluation sheets
because they felt their senior officers should have attended. The truth
of the matter is no position is exempt from depression, PTSD and
suicides. My data has shown there have been numerous chiefs and senior
officers who must have turned to suicide as the answer.
We have heard time and time again in the
fire service that we need to train as if our lives depend on it. This
is a powerful and accurate statement and supported by every member in
the fire service. The idea being that training; sharpens our skills,
makes us aware of mistakes or things overlooked, and gives us the
ability to try different techniques or methods prior to using on the
fire ground. Yet, why is there such hesitation on behavioral health
training being mandatory? Is it because mental health has a dark side?
Is it the fear of the unknown? Would training about depression,
addictions, PTSD or suicide show a sign of weakness? Would our
communities lose respect for their “heroes” if we admitted we had
problems? Or do we stand proud and say, yes, we have problems within our
culture and we, the fire service, will take charge and help ourselves.
Firefighters are some of the most creative people on earth. Give them a
challenge and they will produce results beyond expectations. So I ask,
what makes training about behavioral health any less important than fire
ground training? It doesn’t, so the challenge for today’s fire chiefs,
are to pledge to our members our dedication on behavioral health
training. Support this training, because our lives do depend on it.
http://firechief.com/suicide/why-fire-departments-need-mandatory-behavioral-health-training
