#SameHere Service Programs for First Responders, Active & Retired Military address the complex challenges in changing stigma and the willingness to seek help in these unique communities. Our programs address the culture changes needed, and speak to everyone involved in these communities from PPO’s/Probationary Fire Fighters/Privates on up through the Chiefs/Commissioners/Generals, through a variety strategies. As our Founder’s diagnosis was PTSD, the topic of traumas born from lived experiences, is a topic he and The Alliance are particularly committed to. A number of our Alliance Members and advocates have a proven track-record working closely with First Responders and the Military in areas all over the world, and we look forward to the possibility of working with your group – ranging anywhere from a single Fire House, to an entire Police Department. 

Our #SameHereService Programs begin with a Culture-Changing Launch Rally delivered either in smaller, more intimate sessions, or with your entire group at once. These Rallies are led by a member(s) of The Global Mental Health Alliance who introduces the concept of the #SameHere “5 in 5” reality when it comes to mental health – how everyone in this world is affected, and this topic is not about disorder via genetic predisposition, alone. From our experience, specific verbiage matters immensely when it comes to the First Responder and Military communities. Our Alliance members (many of whom come from the world of professional sports), use this Rally to share their own personal challenges they have faced in life that have affected their mental health, to explain that we all go through obstacles, they are unavoidable and part of the human experience.

These members’ stories resonate because they are shared from individuals you “never would have thought” would have been effected, and similar to members in your communities, came about from traumatic lived experiences (either that they personally were a part of, or that they watched in others they were connected with). The Launch Rally also includes creative examples (graphics and animations) explaining the science behind how stress and trauma affect our minds and bodies, positive coping strategies, and an interactive Q & A session. We use many examples to compare mental health to physical health, and speak in terms of the comparisons of “injuries” to both, so that the topic better resonates with these groups that are used to just pushing through pain until the can’t any longer. This up-beat, yet powerful session, ideally runs for two hours, followed by Alliance Members staying after for individual questions with members of your group. ——- Canadian Fire Responders Alliance Members from WorkSafe BC & First Responder Groups 

We teach your members various “STARR” (Stress & Trauma, Active Release & Rewiring) Exercises so they have coping skills and strategies to deal with stressful and traumatic events. There are many exercises that members of your community can do on down-times, on the way back from calls or missions, or in a separate room that is designated in your offices, quarters, and precincts. The time taken to perform these exercises has to be “found,” but we teach ways to find that time, resulting in greater health and productivity of your members. We are careful not to use terms or imagery that play on stigmas related to these exercises – terms and imagery that make members of this community turn away from the help offered. Instead, the reason we developed STARR, is to share the actual science behind how and why these exercises work (so that much like what they are used to with physical health, your members can actually understand what each exercise is for).  We also have STARR Exercise Courses, for leaders in your group to learn directly, in a self-paced format from the top experts in mind/body science and modalities.  You can even access STARR Exercise cards before we begin to work together and together we can build STARR “Gym for the Brain” rooms in your workspaces.  We also partner with and bring to you technologies such as anonymous peer-to-peer apps and chat rooms, that enable your members to speak more openly to one another, without fear of repercussions of judgments. 

We are also do break-out sessions talking with your groups about how they have traditionally been treated by society, due to misconceptions about the conditions many of them return home with after service, or acquire after going on many intense calls. We help to bridge the communication gap between how the mental health of our First Responders and Military, and the rest of society is looked at, so that there is a greater understanding as to how similar the conditions we ALL face are, just at experienced at varying levels, based on different traumas lived through – and of course different intensities in symptoms. At the end of the day, however, we show how we are all one big tribe being effected in similar ways, and why we shouldn’t be bucketing groups separately with any sort of misunderstood perceptions. —– Please click below and fill out the form so we can discuss a #SameHereService Program with your group. Your group can start with the Rally alone, or we can discuss a number of the breakout and on-going sessions referenced above. Our Alliance members have worked with Service groups all over the globe, and most recently in Vancouver. We look forward to the possibility of working with you.