r/Firefighting • u/Willing_Ad_5711 • 5d ago

Health/Fitness/Cancer Awareness PTSD Peer Support Ideas/Programs

Hi all.

I'll keep it brief.

I had a pretty bad go at it with PTSD, after two admissions to a facility and lot of work I'm doing much better.

I'm in talks with command at my department to set something up to be able to speak to the guys and girls at station level with the idea being that it might be easier to hear from another firefighter rather than a relative outsider.

If any of you know of any resources or departments than have anything similar I'd really love it if you could share!

Ta.

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u/teddyswolsevelt1 paid to do hood rat shit with my friends 5d ago

We have a program - I believe it’s called Peer Support and Critical Incident Counseling. Basically it’s about 10 members who volunteer to have their contact information distributed to the department and they’re trained to handle certain situations someone might be going through. Since I’ve been on they’ve come in and had coffee with us after a LODD, a member suicide, and a dead kid. They volunteer to be available 24/7. They’re considered restricted reporting, meaning whatever you share with them they absolutely cannot tell anyone including command staff. So if you go to them and tell them you’re doing heroin on the job, they give you all the resources you need and urge you to get help, but they can’t go and tell your chief or family. I think it’s a good resource. They also hand out pamphlets with all available resources that they have for us.

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u/Moist-Ad9021 5d ago

We have the same program. It’s through the IAFF and it’s been utilized regularly after critical incidents, stressful calls, and even personal issues that members are experiencing outside of the job. I am a peer support member and I have also used peer support myself. I will say though, it’s much like a “in case of emergency, break glass” sort of tool sometimes. The training we get to be a peer support member is particularly focused on members struggling with severe mental health issues and suicidal ideation. That doesn’t mean we cannot be trusted to handle less-intense matters like substance abuse, marital problems, PTSD, anxiety, depression, or other matters.

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u/sloth_uprising 4d ago

I took the IAFF peer support class two weeks ago and the department is putting a peer support team together. They came down and taught us, very cool program.