By Dick Brown
写作NVFC
“Suck it up, buttercup – if you can’t take the heat, you might need to get out of the kitchen!” I’m probably not the only one who was told that, or something similar, when we had our first encounter with death as afirefighter。幸运的是，消防服务已经过去了mental healthissues, but it can still be hard for firefighters to recognize when they need help.
在我服务的时候，我受益于许多很棒的人的指导。在几年前的一次会议上，我很荣幸与德克萨斯州一个大型部门的退休队长坐下来交谈。当我们谈论我们的经历以及我们看到和处理的许多事情时，他只是摇了摇头，说他认为我们将看到我们从未见过的事情。我们以前从未处理过的事情，我们在狂野的噩梦中无法想象。
他是对的。现在已经成为常规的经验大规模枪击事件in schools, the workplace, shopping malls, even in houses of worship. As the fire service, it’s not necessarily our job to try to figure out why this is happening, but it is our job to mitigate the aftermath and to deal with the results of the carnage. After we have treated the last patient and loaded them into the ambulance, or the coroner’s van, we head back to the firehouse and get ready for the next call. But it doesn’t always go that smoothly. We can’t “unsee” what we have seen. We can push it aside and ignore it for a while, but it can sometimes come back to haunt us when we least expect it.
相关的消防员培训
- Behind You All the Way: The Work of a Fire Chaplain
- 建立牧师计划
- The Impact of Mental Health Stigma in the Fire Service
- 牧师：那些沉默的英雄
Recollections from the most difficult calls may come back in the form of nightmares or sleepless nights or can manifest in a more serious condition known aspost-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)。我认为，消防员都遭受了某种形式的创伤后压力。有许多影响可能导致它成为疾病或伤害。由于消防员在大多数情况下是“ A型”个性，因此很难承认您可能需要帮助。通常，仅与您的船员或您信任的人分享可能有益于应对创伤事件的压力。
许多部门有牧师和同伴的支持vailable to their members. I have served my department for the last 32 years and as I have gotten older and slower, I transitioned into the role of chaplain and peer support. As someone who has spent many years on the engine, I am fortunate to have the credibility of my fellow firefighters and I have been welcomed with open arms.
Over the last 12 or so years, I have had the support of the chief to attend multiple training classes that have to do with critical incident stress management (CISM). The International Crisis Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF) provides the basis for much of the training available to the fire service. One of the questions that I am often asked is: “When do you need to do a debriefing or defusing?” That can be a difficult question to answer, and the best I can say is that you need to know your folks. It can depend on the nature of the call as well as if the patient or victim is someone you know.
我们的机构涵盖了165平方英里的几个小社区，由于我们地区的人口有限，我经常认识患者/受害者。这可能是一把双刃剑，因为在混乱中间看到一张熟悉的面孔对家庭来说是一种安慰，但必须很难与朋友一起工作。有时候，特定的呼叫会导致您很难处理它，但是我发现，在通话后长期接触会导致您的心理健康产生深远的影响。
相关的消防员培训
We may not talk about the struggles we are having for various reasons. Because I am involved not only with the fire department as a chaplain, but also with the local hospital as one of their volunteer chaplains, I had a very tough year in 2021. I was involved in 68 deaths of strangers, friends, and kids. I felt that because I was the chaplain, I could simply “pray” my way out of my struggles. My faith is strong and the center of my very being, but I still struggled. I simply refused to “give myself permission” to not be okay. It was only after I melted down after the death of a 10-day old baby that I realized that I had a problem. We were visiting our twin five-year-old grandkids and something that they did caused me to recall an event from nine years ago, and I reacted badly and ran out of the room. Only after I settled down did I finally give in to: “Hey, I might just have a problem.”
After realizing that I needed to seek professional help, I was able to find a local licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) who has been incredibly helpful to my beginning the process of healing. After the first visit, she diagnosed me with PTSD, a diagnosis that I was none too happy to accept. We have continued to meet on a regular schedule, and she has made several suggestions of methods and changes for me to continue to heal.
我也很幸运能买到我要训练的狗治疗狗for use in and around the fire station. His name is Rodney, and he is certified as a registered therapy dog that I use for many different first responder’s organizations locally. A funny thing happened after we bonded as a team – he started to notice when I was stressed after returning home from calls. He would meet me at the front door, even at 2:00 a.m., and would jump up in the chair with me and crawl into my lap and would not leave me alone. We have started the process to train him as my service dog as well as a therapy dog for others.
In conclusion, we see and deal with traumatic events on a chronic basis, and it can be difficult to admit that we are having problems dealing with the aftermath. We can feel that it is a sign of weakness to acknowledge that and just try to “suck it up” and get by. It is a sad day when we look at the year-end data and see that we lose more firefighters tosuicide而不是承重死亡。在我们的职业中，没有死亡是可以接受的，但确实发生了。您或您的兄弟或姐妹没有任何借口可以与我们所有可用资源的心理健康问题遭受痛苦。在国家志愿者消防委员会（NVFC）网站上，有一个名为“分享负载”的程序，其中包括几乎每个州的当地行为健康从业人员目录。当我们最终认识到需求时，有许多资源可以帮助我们。我们要做的就是寻求帮助。保持健康，安全！
Dick Brown是加利福尼亚谷温泉的Calaveras合并消防区的成员。在过去的32年中，他在包括消防队长在内的所有职位上都为该地区服务。他目前担任部门牧师和同伴支持负责人。在过去的15年中，他一直是国家志愿者消防委员会的代表，并担任加利福尼亚州消防员协会志愿者委员会的副主任和成员，担任退休终身会员。他和他的狗罗德尼（Rodney）被认证为治疗狗和处理者，并为急救人员和当地医院服务，担任志愿者牧师。
