Emergency medical services workers across the state are still down by a third, so there’s a lot of overtime for those who frequently run ambulances for life and death.
With all this OT, I am under overwhelming stress and desperately need mental health support.
bridge port Emergency Management Director Tim Curry recently wrote in the National Journal of Emergency Medical Services: Stop it, culture is killing first respondersHe wrote that he answered the calls, as did hundreds of others, one of which was about an accident on the interstate that killed a young girl.
“I looked at her phone and saw a message from her mom and was like, ‘Hey, why aren’t you home yet? I’m worried,” Curry said. “It really blew me away. I had seen worse things before, but it got to the point where it went too far. I had to walk away.”
An incident of post-traumatic stress overwhelmed a seasoned EMT. Curry said he ditched his longtime first responder mantra and turned to alcohol before realizing he needed help.
“It’s been a rough journey for someone who’s always been like, ‘Okay, I’m tough, I can handle it, I don’t need help,’ figuring out that this wasn’t normal and that I needed to talk to someone.” said Curry. “I looked in the mirror and said, ‘I need to deal with this.’ It’s been a long road to get here.”
Nationwide, more than 100 first responders have committed suicide in 2021, more than those who died on the job. In West Virginia, over the past three years, he’s simply quit, with more than 1,900 paramedics retiring. Recruitment and retention efforts are underway, but Curry said his overworked colleagues need more mental health support and tools to deal with their trauma.
“They need to know that it’s okay to need to take a break, it’s okay not to be okay, and to talk to someone about it. They need healthy coping mechanisms, good eating, You need to have an outlet for stress from exercise, hobbies and work,” Currie said. , go hiking or do something.”
West Virginia’s Director of Emergency Medical Care, Jodie Ratliff, is getting a personal call from a traumatized first responder who needs to speak to someone who knows how she feels. He said that while moving forward, more mental health support is paramount to leaving the “boredom” mentality behind.
“When we talk about retention, when we talk about keeping EMS and first responders across the board, when we talk about retention, mental health is a big issue that we’ve never talked about,” said Ratliff. . “It affects over time, it affects physical ability, mental ability, and people can no longer handle it and want to leave the business.”
Ratliff said West Virginia has adopted an EMS mental health support program and is currently reviewing an app that has been successful in Florida.
“First responders across the state can access this app and plug in their mood of the day and what might have just happened,” says Ratliff. “You may be asked to contact someone in the next few days, or you may be put in touch with a mental health professional on the spot.”
Curry Call is a great first step to setting up a mental health support app.
“The fact that people are noticing this and doing something about it speaks to where we are now and where we have been. We’re seeing the effects of a long-term problem dealing with everything that makes us sick, and we’ve been ignoring this for so long that we’re now facing a massive shortage of paramedics,” Curry said. “We need better access to good, insured mental health care. If you’re going to hire someone to help you internally, you need to do a better job.”
Ratliff said he’s working with EMS directors statewide to keep the “fucking” monkeys off everyone’s backs.
“It’s okay to talk about stigma. It’s time to end the stigma. We’re all dealing with this whether we admit it or not. It’s something we’ve all dealt with in our careers.” That’s it,” said Ratliff. “I have been very public about dealing with my own trauma and getting help in my career and what it has meant for me, my career and my life. ”
Curry said a quarter of EMS workers in West Virginia report mental health problems, and they’re the only ones who admit to it. He said it was time to get up from “slipping” and deal with the issue.
