NFPA Journal - Summer 2024 - 54

Perspectives
doing this right now-but there's no real
standard practice. There isn't something
like PPE, where departments or organizations
are held to the NFPA standard.
It is going to take time, but I believe
that we will see in the future at every
department-from volunteer to career to
even wildland and military-some kind
of standard that says, " these are the
components of a behavioral health program
your organization needs to have for
your members and their families. " And it
will be mandatory, just like our annual
physicals are mandatory. It's coming, it's
just going to take time and a lot of work.
(Editor's note: NFPA 1500, Standard on
Fire Department Occupational Safety,
Health and Wellness Program, includes
guidance to fire departments for developing
a behavioral health access program.
This includes minimum benefit requirements
for basic counseling, stress crisis
intervention, and other services.)
It seems that a lot of positive
things are happening, but
that there are also a lot of challenges-a
greater workload,
an increase in shootings, more
violent patients. On the whole, do
you believe the mental health of
firefighters and EMS workers is
trending upwards or downwards?
It's a great question. Despite all the organizations
and fire and EMS departments
that are doing great work on this issue,
we're still losing people and that's scary.
Last year we saw more than 100 fire and
EMS suicides. So far this year we've validated
five suicides-this time last year
we had 12. We're hoping that the data
will show a reduction in suicides over the
years, and I think we'll see that.
Even if we decrease the number of
deaths, that doesn't mean we won't still
have people out there struggling with alcohol
abuse, depression, or legal and financial
issues. There are so many responders who
are hurting. There's just a lot of anger out
there. This is why we have to be very proactive
with behavioral health.
How do you collect
suicide information?
Early on, when I first founded FBHA, we
created a confidential reporting system
on our web page, which is a form that
departments or family members can fill
out. It takes about three to five minutes
to complete. When they hit " submit, " the
email address is scrubbed, so I have no
way to know who sent it in. But when
we look at the information on the form,
we can see what fire department the
deceased worked at, and I'll contact the
chief to verify the information. Unfortunately,
I've had those conversations
thousands of times.
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54 | NFPA JOURNAL * SUMMER 2024
Should we have a more formalized
way of collecting this data?
Yes, and I'm currently working on that
with Senator Jacky Rosen's office here in
Nevada as well as Senator Deb Fischer
in Nebraska. A couple of years ago they
put together the HERO Act-or Helping
Emergency Responders Overcome-that
would create a nationwide responder
suicide reporting system and increase
behavioral health funding for our fire
and EMS departments. Unfortunately,
they've had to submit it three different
times and it sits in committee and doesn't
go further. I would like to see our politicians
become more involved. A lot of
times the politicians are aware of the
struggles the military has with behavioral
health and suicide, but not the fire
service, so FBHA is working with Senator
Rosen to send letters out to every senator
to back this bill.
I'm 62 years old. I only have so many
years left before I turn this over to
someone who will carry the torch for
remembering our brothers and sisters.
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NFPA Journal - Summer 2024

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