More than 40 first responders in New Brunswick are taking part in a training program that could help them save lives — including their own.
The ‘Road to Mental Readiness’ program is designed to help paramedics, firefighters and other front line workers cope with occupational stress.
The program also teaches workers to recognize when they or their peers are in need of professional help.
The hope is that by identifying signs of stress early on, workers can manage stress and diffuse it before it turns into something more serious, like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
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Paramedic Barry Edwards has been working in his job for 20 years and says he suffers from PTSD as a result of years of workplace stress.
He told Global News he went through therapy and had to take time off work. Edwards says he hopes the program, which hits close to home, will help him and others identify when they need help.
He says three of his friends who were paramedic have killed themselves.
“It can be a single event, or over years, but it’s [important] to deal with the symptoms so you recognize the signs of when you need to go get help,” Edwards said.
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Paramedic Association of New Brunswick executive director and registrar Chris Hood says there is a major need for the program
“We’ve done a national survey that included about 6,000 practitioners across the country that responded to our survey and we saw some really alarming numbers in the survey around mental health and resiliency,” Wood said.
According to the Department of National Defence, the program was originally designed for members of the military, but has been adapted to meet the needs of all front line workers.
The course is a ‘train the trainer’ program and participants will become certified to teach the program to other first responders throughout the province.
New Brunswick Minister of Health Victor Boudreau says first responders rely a lot on their partners, and says peer counselling among teammates is a good idea to increase the comfort level.
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New Brunswick Association of Fire Chiefs (NBAFC) president Dan McCoy says the program serves as a preventive measure to help first responders recognize and deal with occupational stress.
“If we can deal with these upfront, put some preventative measures in place, and hopefully help them deal with these incidents and the stress of these incidents, we wont have those suicides,” McCoy said.
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