Firefighter Behavioral Health: Protecting Our Own Workshop Held in Westchester County

NYSAFC offered a special workshop, Firefighter Behavioral Health: Protecting Our Own, for students attending the Company Officers Leadership Training (COLT) program in Rye Brook, N.Y. on December 7, 2013.

The workshop was presented by NYSAFC EMS Director Mike McEvoy, a nationally respected fire/EMS lecturer and author. Additional workshops were conducted earlier this year for the Career Fire Chiefs of New York State and the Saratoga County Fire Officers Association.

Under a grant from the New York State Department of Labor, NYSAFC developed this program, which consists of workshop presentations and a host of resources available on the NYSAFC website.

Firefighters are fantastic problem solvers; the public calls on the fire service to manage every crisis imaginable. Part of being a firefighter includes exposure to traumatic events. Quite simply – bad runs happen. Firefighters are regular people. They have families, homes, bills to pay, and people to answer to outside of the fire house. Put all this together and, as a profession, it's no wonder why firefighters have higher rates of divorce, alcoholism, substance abuse, and suicide than civilians. This program was developed to provide fire personnel with resources and tips for what departments can and should do to protect the physical and mental well being of members.

Full Term Attendees of the NYSAFC 108th Annual Conference - FIRE 2014 Expo are encouraged to attend a Firefighter Behavioral Health workshop that will be held on Friday, June 13, 2014, from 10:15 - 11:45 a.m. at the Turning Stone Resort in Verona, N.Y.

All fire service personnel are encouraged to access the Firefighter Behavioral Health: Protecting Our Own resource center on the NYSAFC website. Materials available for downloading include a PowerPoint presentation, After Action Review Poster from the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, a CDC Guide for Responders and Families, and a Trauma Screening Questionnaire.

Additionally, in early 2014, NYSAFC will be mailing a Behavioral Health Poster to each fire department in New York state. The poster will also be available for downloading.