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Supporting First Responders · Talking FACS

• 0:01
  Welcome to Talking Facts.
• 0:03
  What you need to know about family food,
• 0:05
  finance and fitness.
• 0:07
  This nationally recognized award winning podcast is hosted by the University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program.
• 0:16
  Our educators share research knowledge with individuals,
• 0:19
  families and communities to improve quality of life.
• 0:25
  Hello and welcome to Talking Facts.
• 0:27
  This is your host,
• 0:28
  Doctor Jennifer Hunter,
• 0:29
  assistant Director for Family Consumer Sciences Extension at the University of Kentucky.
• 0:35
  Today.
• 0:35
  Our podcast topic is going to focus on mental health and first responders.
• 0:40
  We often think of first responders as being the ones that help others in time and need.
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  However,
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  the nature of their jobs we all know can have many impacts on their own mental health.
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  Suicide rates can be elevated in first responder populations as well as post traumatic stress.
• 0:56
  Patrick Yos,
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  the National President for the Fraternal Order of Police commented law enforcement officers unfortunately see the very worst of humanity with some statistics suggesting that a police officer will experience more traumatic events in six months than the average person will experience in a lifetime.
• 1:16
  Carrie Ashurst is here today to talk to us about topics related to mental health and first responders.
• 1:21
  She is a senior extension specialist for family relationships and development.
• 1:26
  Also joining us today is Liz Evans Extension Agent for Family Consumer Sciences in Boone County who has a spouse as a first responder.
• 1:35
  Welcome,
• 1:36
  Carrie and Liz.
• 1:37
  Hello and thank you.
• 1:39
  So Carrie,
• 1:40
  can we get started in by you providing us some background on mental health and first responders?
• 1:47
  Absolutely.
• 1:48
  Yes.
• 1:49
  Uh As we all know,
• 1:50
  exposure to traumatic events has been linked to a lot of different things with psychological distress and mental health issues.
• 1:58
  And first responders may be at a much higher risk or psychological distress because of the number of traumatic events that they may experience on the job.
• 2:07
  Other aspects that can contribute to things like psycho psychological distress can include lack of sleep,
• 2:13
  some of the physical demands involved with the job being on high alert for a sustained or longer period of time and then long working hours as well.
• 2:25
  So a lot of those things kind of all combine at times to create some concern or some risk factors,
• 2:31
  at least for some mental health issues and uh burnout compassion,
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  fatigue,
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  post traumatic stress are all some common things that we are concerned about with first responder populations.
• 2:44
  Um Some of the research has even shown about 70% report that they don't have enough time to recover between traumatic events.
• 2:51
  And according to the substance abuse and Mental Health Services administration,
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  roughly one in three first responders develops post traumatic symptoms along the way.
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  And so coping with trauma can increase risk for a lot of other mental health issues as we know.
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  And uh it can include things like depression,
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  anxiety,
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  uh substance use or abuse.
• 3:14
  And then also even things like eating disorders or suicidal thoughts or attempts.
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  And spouses and family members are often the first ones who see some of these concerns,
• 3:25
  some of these early warning signs and um may include things like intrusive memories which involves,
• 3:32
  you know,
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  constantly reliving something in your head that you've witnessed or experienced or been a part of uh negative changes in your thinking or your mood and even changes in some of your physical or your emotional reactions.
• 3:45
  We have Liz,
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  as you said on the,
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  the podcast with us today as a spouse of a first responder to be able to talk with some of the some of those things,
• 3:55
  what what some of that experience is like?
• 3:58
  So,
• 3:58
  Liz,
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  what are some of the family relationship impacts on first responders?
• 4:03
  So first responders really need a strong support system and oftentimes the family is that immediate support system for them outside of their work family.
• 4:14
  Um But there are many challenges that do come along with first responder life and being that support system for our first responders.
• 4:21
  Some of these might include the feeling of living separate lives,
• 4:25
  the first responder needing time to decompress after a shift difficulty with showing emotions and active listening as well as um empathy and appreciation for things.
• 4:38
  So our first responders are often times unable or unwilling to share details about their day with their spouse or their family as they don't want to inflict the trauma that they might have experienced that day.
• 4:51
  On the ones that they love with this,
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  not being able to talk to your spouse about how their day was can cause some of that issue of feeling like you're living separate lives.
• 5:05
  Addition to that missing things like holidays,
• 5:08
  birthdays,
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  many day to day activities can also cause the first responder and their family to feel like they're living separate lives.
• 5:17
  One big area is often being away from families during the holidays.
• 5:22
  And so with that,
• 5:23
  I spoke with my husband who is a volunteer firefighter as well as a police officer.
• 5:28
  And he said that it's even different depending on which job he's at if he's working a holiday.
• 5:36
  So being a firefighter,
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  most of the time he's at the firehouse with his buddies,
• 5:43
  you know,
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  the the other firefighters that he's working with.
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  So he may not be with his immediate personal family.
• 5:50
  He's with his firefighter family,
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  they're hanging out,
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  they're having a great time.
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  Whereas working a holiday as a police officer,
• 5:59
  typically they're going to be in their vehicle driving around town by themselves most of the time also dealing with,
• 6:08
  you know,
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  more criminals as compared to helping someone who,
• 6:15
  you know,
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  is having the worst day with a fire for instance.
• 6:19
  Um So it's just kind of even the type of work that they're doing can have an effect on the mental health with being away from their family on a holiday.
• 6:29
  Another thing is busy shifts and stressful situations.
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  So first responders,
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  they might need some time to decompress when they get home.
• 6:39
  Um However,
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  it's also important that they understand that their spouse and their family need them.
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  So oftentimes police officers,
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  they take on the identity of being a cop and this happens more so in the police world than it does with firefighters giving them time when they get home to decompress,
• 6:59
  but then allowing them and making it known that they have to then switch to their other role of maybe spouse or parent and one good strategy to help with this is setting a time.
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  So if your first responder comes home,
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  maybe giving them 30 minutes to decompress and then they switch to that other role of spouse or parent or whatever,
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  it may be.
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  Another thing is active,
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  listening and communication that is imperative in,
• 7:29
  in all relationships,
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  but especially first responder relationships,
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  this can be difficult due to the hypervigilance that the first responders tend to be under,
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  um especially in law enforcement.
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  And so within that critical stress can play a role.
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  Um So looking at whether the critical stress is coming from an incident that occurred,
• 7:56
  um just the occupational stress that carry alluded to earlier or even just the physical stress that their bodies are under due to that state of hypervigilance when they are at work.
• 8:07
  Um So it's just important for the spouse um to be aware of stressors that come along with first responder life.
• 8:14
  You know,
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  it's definitely a career where the only thing that is consistent is inconsistency.
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  So,
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  um just being aware of how your significant other typically is knowing some of those warning signs for if they do start to be a little bit more withdrawn,
• 8:33
  being aware of that and offering to help Liz,
• 8:37
  I think all great information for how spouses and partners can support their,
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  their loved one.
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  That is a first responder.
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  Carrie thinking more about those supports,
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  what are additional ways to aid first responders in making their mental health a priority.
• 8:54
  Liz mentioned so many good things and you know,
• 8:57
  thinking about it from the standpoint of services and supports that are out there.
• 9:02
  You know,
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  hearing somebody like Liz just talking through some of those things can really open our eyes a lot to what some of those supports and services are that are needed.
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  And I think coupled with,
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  with everything that is offered is that idea of needing to reduce the stigma,
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  you know,
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  telling people that it's ok to ask for help.
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  It's ok to say I'm having a hard time and I need to reach out to someone else making it more ok to have help,
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  seeking behaviors.
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  And um saying it's just as important or just as high of a priority to seek out help for mental health as it is for physical health,
• 9:39
  right?
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  You know that idea that we've,
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  we've got to reduce some of that stigma I think is one of the biggest things Jennifer when I think about that and then uh another support,
• 9:48
  I think that can be a huge help is thinking about programs,
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  events,
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  activities,
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  you know,
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  things that we even offer through extension and through our community partnerships that can help with um bringing families together,
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  helping with parenting skills,
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  lots of other different sorts of programmatic activities that we can do to help people meet one another.
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  For example,
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  audiences that can come together who may have similar backgrounds or have same experiences.
• 10:17
  Um for example,
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  working with first responders or spouses and being able to create opportunities where they can come together in a community and meet one another,
• 10:25
  get to know each other and become a support system for one another.
• 10:29
  And then certainly what Liz already brought up that idea of that me time or that decompression time.
• 10:36
  Um It is hard for a lot of us,
• 10:39
  I think in the helping fields and especially when you think about first responders to sort of check at the end of the day,
• 10:45
  check,
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  you know,
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  our identity as what we do for a profession at the door and then suddenly we're a,
• 10:51
  a spouse,
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  we're a partner.
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  We're a parent,
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  we're a son,
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  a daughter or an aunt and an uncle.
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  And,
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  um,
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  you know,
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  all of these roles that we play in our lives and we have to kind of turn one off and start with another and that can be difficult at times.
• 11:04
  So that idea,
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  Liz brought up of decompression time can be really critical.
• 11:09
  Sometimes,
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  you know,
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  if it's just 10 or 15 minutes or maybe as much as 30 it can be great to be able to just have that time to come in and say,
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  ok,
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  I need a few,
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  you know,
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  maybe to just sit down for a few and spend a moment or take a shower or whatever,
• 11:25
  it may be just to have a little bit of decompression time before that other role in my personal life starts those many other roles in my personal life.
• 11:33
  Right.
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  Right.
• 11:35
  So Liz,
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  if someone was looking for more information or additional resources,
• 11:39
  do you have materials that you recommend to people on the topics we're discussing today?
• 11:45
  I do I have a few really good book options as resources.
• 11:50
  Um So the first one being titled Hold the Line,
• 11:53
  the Essential Guide To Protecting your law enforcement relationship uh by Cindy Doyle,
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  who is a police spouse as well as um a licensed counselor.
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  The second one being emotional survival for law enforcement,
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  a guide for officers and their families by Doctor Kevin Gilmartin.
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  He's a behavioral scientist who specializes in law enforcement and public safety related issues.
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  And then the last one,
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  um,
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  is I love a cop by,
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  uh,
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  by Doctor Ellen Kirchman or the alternative?
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  I love a firefighter by Doctor Ellen Kirchman.
• 12:29
  And they're all wonderful resources.
• 12:32
  One of your best resources like Carrie alluded to is really going to be other first responder families because sometimes they are truly the only ones who can understand what it is you're going through.
• 12:47
  But all wonderful resources and I encourage people to check them out.
• 12:51
  Ok.
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  And as we wrap up today,
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  Carrie,
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  can you leave us with information that if there's someone um in your life or that you cross paths with that you may be concerned about or struggling with suicidal thoughts or tendencies.
• 13:07
  How can we help prevent that with among first responders?
• 13:11
  Yeah,
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  it's a hard question,
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  you know,
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  and it's a hard thing when someone comes to us and expresses that they may be feeling some of those feelings,
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  some of those thoughts or maybe that they've even attempted,
• 13:21
  attempted a suicide in the past.
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  But um one of the most important things I think we can do is just listen,
• 13:27
  be present and be as non judgmental as we can be.
• 13:31
  And remember also that um someone talking about it does not encourage it.
• 13:37
  Uh I think we've oftentimes had that idea in the society of oh,
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  if we talk about it,
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  then we're encouraging someone to attempt suicide.
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  But it's actually quite the opposite.
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  Just remembering that,
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  you know,
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  as we're talking about it,
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  we,
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  we have a lot of resources that are out there and it,
• 13:53
  sometimes again it's,
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  it's scary and it's overwhelming.
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  But,
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  um,
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  remembering that we have things like the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and they actually,
• 14:01
  even recently took a number that was pretty long and hard to remember.
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  And now it's just simply 988.
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  And so that's a great number for people to have at their fingertips.
• 14:10
  I think just simply 988,
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  you can actually pick up and you can make a phone call to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline with someone even and um help why walk them through it,
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  it connects you to as close of a place as it can get you to,
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  uh,
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  with where you're located in the country.
• 14:27
  And then also,
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  of course,
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  always remembering that if someone is in imminent or immediate danger to themselves or others to call 911 car and Liz,
• 14:35
  thank you so much for joining us today and bringing awareness to first responders and mental health.
• 14:42
  And what we can do is spouses or partners or loved ones to um help support those folks in our lives.
• 14:50
  Thank you.
• 14:51
  Thank you.
• 14:53
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• 14:55
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• 14:58
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• 14:59
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• 15:00
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• 15:05
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• 15:34
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• 15:35
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