Shared abt a wk ago, a post abt enjoying my work w the 1st Responders up in Canada. It’s so refreshing to be arnd such a dedicated group who care not only abt the lives they’re saving ON the job, but now the lives they must save in their own houses/offices.
Unfortunately the headline in this article speaks for itself. This # of suicides in such a short time, w/in the same PD, is not coincidence.
The fascinating thing abt the 1st Responder community, is that it teaches an incredible lesson in how stress & trauma doesn’t have to be something WE live thru, to have a tremendously negative impact.
Think abt an officer being the first on the scene of a crime where an innocent person was shot. A firefighter who tried to save someone in a burning building where their sibling was engulfed in flames. What abt a paramedic who rushed to give someone CPR, only for them not to make it. These are the stresses/traumas these heroes see every day. Though it may not be their own fam member/friend, these events affect them greatly & build up in their systems.
It’s not so dissimilar to how those who aren’t in that community, deal w the terrible events we witness involving friends, fam, neighbors, loved ones. This stuff impacts the 1st Responders…this stuff impacts every day civilians. We have a societal MH issue bc most of society doesn’t understand that these life challenges are what affect us. We hear mostly abt disorder stemming from genetic predispositions. Labels.
Nothing to announce, but we’re in touch w the Mayor’s Office, their MH wing, & the 1st Responder community here in NY, discussing ways we can help w our #SameHereService programs. More to come as that develops.