Comments on The Kitchen Table: Taking Care of Our Own/Stress and P.T.S.D. in the ...

by the way....chiefreason....your rig is spot on.....

2008-11-11T12:36:00.000-08:00

by the way....chiefreason....your rig is spot on...with your thinking...now...to get the process in place...."homeland security funding" is there for reasons...find the reasons and apply for the money...see where it takes you and your department...

All numbers are stated generally.Consider the popu...

2008-11-11T12:32:00.000-08:00

All numbers are stated generally.

Consider the population of fire fighters at risk to stress related injury or "Occupational Operational Stress Injury ptsd' OOSI ptsd.
Some 1.2 million are on the front lines in America...of those aproximately 365, thousand are I.A.F.F. (in Canada about 19 thusand are I.A.F.F. of the 365 thousand plus or minus.)
By the I.A.F.F.'s own estimate aproximately 10 percent of the membership have "full blown P.T.S.D. in one form or another without any intervention.
Using that as a baseline you have ten percent of 365 thousand or 36,500 who are serving and going without "proper treatment". Use the 10 percent figure for the entire population of 1.2 million firefighters you have the figure of 120 thousand at risk, on the front lines, without any form of intervention or career/volunteer stress management in place.
We own it. It is ours...and the swamp is full of aligators...
It will keep us busy, funerals for suicide firefighters, spousal abuse, abandonment and neglect of our children, family breakdowns, booze and drugs.
Getting stress connected to the information hydrant means getting educated about what it is doing to us. The "hydrant key" is on the rig your riding....use it to open up the information flow..... firefighterveteran.com

If you were to poll firefighters on the issue of C...

2008-11-09T17:34:00.000-08:00

If you were to poll firefighters on the issue of CISD, you would find them split. Some think that it is effective; therefore, needed and some who think that it doesn't work. When I called for it after a couple of bad calls, the people involved felt that it had helped.
Some view stress or succumbing to it as "weakness". Consequently, they will not admit to it. As the stress builds, it manifests itself in the person in a number of ways that can only be treated by professionals.
Career departments should do a base line psychological exam at the time of hire and then repeat it every few years after that to see if there is a "swing" in the firefighter's mental health.
For vollies, it may be cost prohibitive, but no less important.
Use grant money perhaps.
It is important to address the mental health just as it is for physical health.