Well, we are taking a closer look at an
issue that is not normally talked about,
first responder suicides.
As part of National EMS Week,
Ken's Fives, Marvin Hurst spokeh
Bear County emergency responders about
mental health concerns and solutions.
My name is Frank Ortza.
I work with Bear County Industr.
Fire and Rescue My name is Michael J Sachs.
I am a retired New York City detective.
I'm Chris Mascoro with
District 7 Fire and Rescue.
I am a peer support specialist and expert,
and I'm a critical incident
stress management expert.
Due to my experiences on the NY,
I like to think we have three j,
which is Fire Protection,
EMS, and public service.
I personally jump out of bed whn
it's time for me to go to work, so I.
It's amazing. I
used to be a detective
and retired detective.
I was seriously injured in the line of duty.
I'm a vest safe from a car acci.
I was in a shooting and the
World Trade Center response.
I used to be a firefighter.
I was New York City
Emergency Medical Services,
been to Uvalde to support their local
resource and whatever they needed mainly
was an EMS strike team that we sent fire.
An EMS you run.
Are accidents, stabbings,
shootings, suicides,
rollover accidents, ejections,
cardiac arrest and adults and k.
So you see, you see everything.
Sometimes it's a good turnout,
sometimes it's a bad turnout.
When you're not clear minded on this job,
on this type of job,
it's dangerous. The job.
The job is dangerous as it is.
It's not a safe job.
We know that from the get go.
But having an unclear mind doing
a dangerous job is not good. So
I kind of have to put it in a
box and go on the next call.
That's how a lot of us deal wit.
And I think it becomes to be a problem
later on and some people who don't know
how to talk about it, but it's .
Separating work from home,
the greatest challenge in the first responder
field is mental health that they can trust
because their job is always at .
If they speak to somebody and on
up to them, they have to worry
about performance evaluations.
Law enforcement officer has carries a gun.
If they have that gun taken awa,
they're not a law enforcement
officer anymore.
So they're always worried about that.
Whether that worry is real or n,
it's very real to them.
Understand
that it's okay to talk
about it. It's not a bad
thing. It's a good thing.
When I was a cop in the 90s,
it was leave it in your locker.
You don't talk about this.
You don't bring it home
to your families. You're
a weak person. If you bring
it home to your family,
you don't even talk about
it in the precinct or at headquarters.
That's not fair to our families.
And our wives and kids that if ,
you know, come home and take
that home, you know what I mean?
While firefighters and cops are answering
all of these calls and seeing
everything that they're seeing,
they still have financial probl,
they still have marital problem,
they still have all the
problems of everyday life.
And that doesn't stop just
because they go to the job.
I don't like to think about
certain calls. I mean, I don't like to.
Bring it up in conversation.
I think it's it doesn't help me personally.
I think the courage comes when you see you
see all the guys you worked with before.
You end up seeing him at a fune.
That's when
you know it's. It's nice to see
your friends, you, your buddies
from the Academy and whatnot, bt
you just get tired of seeing
him at that type of ceremony,
and it makes you realize, hey,
it's OK to talk about it.
You need to talk about it.
We go through a lot and
we go through a lot. We see a l.
So. And the way I look at stres,
either you're going to deal with
stress on your terms or stress
is going to deal with you on its
terms and you never want to have
stress deal with you on its ters
because you're going to lose.
Yeah, I'm all about let's make
sure we get the job done,
let's stay strong and do it,
but at the same time afterwards,
let's talk about it because you know these.
Situations aren't normal.
We see the the worst day of
someone's life every day. They
should be required to have in service
training where they understand t
critical incident stress management is,
so they understand what the process is.
If mental health is important,
peer support is important,
and when we don't pay attention to it,
the job suffers and it costs the
cities and the agencies big dol.
The fire district believes
they are seeing a change
in their culture.