Firefighter - 2020 - 42

DISPATCH

42

By Dustin Hawkins, Indian River County Fire Rescue

Clinician Awareness Program Links in

LAW ENFORCEMENT

to create a Legacy Program

The Florida Firefighters Safety and Health Collaborative have expanded the Clinician Awareness
course to now include a Train-the-Trainer series for instructors to expand the outreach capabilities
to connect with licensed mental health professionals.
The Train-the-Trainer series teaches
instructors how to replicate the core
material and hands on training components
of the program to relate the proprietary
content in a consistent high-quality
manner across the state of Florida. To
aid in scenario delivery and safety, the
Collaborative has partnered with specific
state approved training facilities to
provide interactive observation of realistic
emergency incident scenarios.
Following the completion of the
Train-the-Trainer course series, instructors 
paired with licensed mental health
professionals will teach assigned portions
of the following two-day Clinician Awareness course under the guidance and
supervision of the existing program director

and clinician coordinators. The instructors
leave with the knowledge and tools to
replicate this course and increase the
number of clinicians available statewide
to provided culturally competent care to
the needs of first responders.
To assist the mental health
professionals better understand the
unique stressors of first responders, the
addition of a law enforcement active
killer scenario has been introduced.
This dynamic and full immersion scenario
highlights the role of the dispatcher, fire
and medical responders and their
interaction with law enforcement at an
intense emergency incident.
The positive outcome achieved
through this groundbreaking program

is the clinicians that are better able
to intimately relate to first responder
unique needs and provide critical
intervention and resiliency skills at a time
when first responders need immediate
treatment. The Collaborative is fortunate to
have a dedicated professional clinician and
mental wellness team devoted to providing
these courses for free thought the state of
Florida. In addition, personnel from Georgia
and Kansas have attended the course and
are currently replicating the system in their
own states to better provide this vital link
between clinicians and first responders.
To find the date of the next Train-theTrainer and Clinician Awareness class
visit floridafirefightersafety.org/
about/events.
http://www.floridafirefightersafety.org/about/events http://www.floridafirefightersafety.org/about/events
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