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Resiliency in Emergency Services
I am wondering how does everyone keep themselves strong and resilient against all the stressors and traumas that you encounter in the course of doing your emergency service jobs?
How do you stay emotionally present and nurturing while keeping yourself sane?
What skills have you developed to make yourself more flexible internally?
I am also wondering what skills you utilize to help keep those around you strong and resilient?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Fabulous Heather Days of Summer on
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Hey ;-) not all of us are old and jaded YET ???
or at least we all handle stressors differently - during different stages of our lives...
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But on a serious note...
I think actually the older I get, the more I am aware that the death of someone is significant - not just another run...
someone just lost a husband or wife
someone just lost a son or a daughter
someone just lost a brother or sister
someone just lost a father or mother
someone just lost a friend or colleague
or someone just ended up with thousands of $$$ of medical bills
People DO MATTER... and the older I get the more I realize the next layer of impact to the family and community beyond my individual call.
or someone just lost their home
someone just lost their business
someone just lost their car
~~~ someone just lost their peace of mind ~~~
P.S. I was NOT implying that you do not feel the same way - I know you are extremely compassionate in your work - I was just expanding upon my thoughts - as only I can do...
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Amen Brother - it is NOT OUR EMERGENCY !!!
words to live by
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And something you said sprouted a thought for me...
If an emergency provider attaches TOO MUCH personal emotion to sadness, anxiety and depression - they need to seek help from others. While they are perfectly normal emotions which arise from observing horrible things - it can become overwhelming at times - and it is important to recognize when you are getting in over your head and find someone to help you with it - BEFORE you end up done...
Too many emergency providers walk away from jobs that they love because it becomes too much. So seek help from your colleagues or professional mental health providers - DO WHATEVER IT TAKES - to work through the stress as it comes up.
I know the Critical Incident Stress Debriefings are great for this after especially complicated and messy calls. And in my area, any one can go to their Chief and request a CISD if they feel they need one to address stress for a specific incident. I always found them to be extremely helpful - even when I did not personally feel that the incident was especially horrible.
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Permalink Reply by Triple J on
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A good sense of humor has kept me (pretty much) sane for the last 30 years in the Fire Service. Things can sometimes seem overwhelming, but having a good peer network to talk to helps immensely.
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Permalink Reply by John Dobson on
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We had a bad summer way too many calls with kids major trama, and death. Almost unbearable I should not see a 9 year old having a stroke or a 19 year old EMT who was on are dept one year ago that overdosed and coded then died. So many other bad calls I can't erase.
We worked a 51 year old male who had a heat stroke and coded. My dept forgot me at the hospital when I rode in to assitt EMS. I had to stand and watch his kids and wife come in to find that there dad, husband wasn't ever coming home.
Still trying to find a way to forget. Just makes me train harder want to learn something new to save the next one. Someday I will steal just one from the reaper and thats why I am a firefighter and what I live for.
I also want to deliver a baby most think I am crazy. But I have seen alot check out of the world would like to see one come back.
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Permalink Reply by Anthony McNulty on
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Any time. Just like almost anything you do....Confidence is key!
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Permalink Reply by Robert Owens on
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Develop short term memory.
Ill be honest I had one call in my 14 years thta has bothered me....pediatric cardiac arrest on Christmas eve....I was 17 and still vollying. After that one I though long and hard about following in my fathers footsteps and stayed away from the firehouse for a week.
The I decided this is what I wanted to do fore the rest of my life, so I flipped the proverbial switch and now nothing bothers me, cause I do not let it. Sure I remember calls but more for analyzation of my performance. My wife who has also been in Fire and EMS a long time sometimes thinks I am cold hearted becuase we would go ona call back when we ran Fd together and It would be like I was shopping at the grocery store not peeling a person off the road.
Maybe I am cold, I just think that sometimes people get bothered by stuff and some do not....Im the guy who does his job, and then moves on, I dont get connected to anyone pt, or call cause there is always another one. it works for me.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Weber on
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An appropriate sense of humor is essential.But being able to sit down and talk about it,whatever "it" may be is great.We have some folks who have been doing this a while now and for the most part they are really good at helping some of our younger folks with some situations that they have never been in before.The CIS debreifings are really good too.
I really don't think too much about bad calls anymore for the most part.I don't know if it's being a little jaded,or callous or what but about the only ones that bother me anymore are kids.I fish or hunt or just get outside for a while to decompress.I think growing up on a farm helped(?)me tremendously.Life and death are introduced to you at an early age and you just accept it as part of life.
Got to agree with Ralph too.I think ya gotta have at least a little screw somewhere loose to begin with to do this in the first place.
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Permalink Reply by Mark Klaene on
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humor is definitely useful but what works best for me is walking away from ever call knowing I did the best I could-- regardless of the outcome.
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Permalink Reply by Richard Armstrong on
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I had MVC's bother me where the person was pretty messed up (I didn't shoot any video) but was alive and the screaming was kinda getting to me and then shortly after that there was another MCV where a female in the car died and I had to restrain the husband because he knew and she was pregnant and he flipped and it still to this day I remember them.I was used to going in and they were already gone so you didn't hear the screams and I can deal wit that pretty good but when I had to deal with that one where she was concious and with the husband freaking out that ate at me but I've learned that the best for me is talking to the guys and getting it off your chest and to realize you did the best you could in the situation and the outcome usually already determined before your pager even goes off. You should always remember to keep an eye on your brothers and sisters also becausesometimes if they haven't found thier way of coping yet or are just to cool to say something got to them it can eat them up and cause them alot of problems.
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10-106: I did not want to zoom by your comment too fast without highlighting some excellent words of wisdom that you provided.
You said: "communication with your family is paramount. While I don't share all the gory details with my wife I need to be open with her and let her know when something is bothering me. That way I don't take anything out on the family. Your support network at home needs to be secure for your relationship to survive."
Uber important !!!!!!!!!!
It is a lonely existence without the strong support and connection of family !!!
Thanks for your input.
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Amen and Amen. Thanks for your input.
Yes, exercise outside of the firefighting - got to keep the body healthy at times when it is not filled full of adrenaline. Someone once taught me that when your body dumps adrenaline into it, bad cholestrol dumps into your body. And if it is a false alarm, you got to work that adrenaline out of your system in order to get that bad cholestrol worked out of your system.
So now PLEASE share with us some of the jems about how you make and keep a strong marriage over the years?
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Thanks for your input 3J.
For me, I verbally process. So usually talking through stressful stuff helps me catalog it more effectively in my mind.
One of the greatest things done to build MY resilience by other fire fighters was for them to make themselves available to me. Several fire fighters, especially my officers pulled me aside at various times and gave me their personal phone numbers and told me to call them anytime, if I needed anything, especially if I needed to talk. Then they actually made themselves available to me - night or day. They welcomed me into their homes and allowed me to discuss and learn and process without criticism.
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