A new website is launching today to assist Nova Scotia first responders coping with trauma, in a year in which a pandemic and a mass shooting have added to the distressing experiences they routinely face.
The site offers resources designed for paramedics, firefighters, police officers and health services workers to help them manage the toll of the trauma they experience at work.
It also provides support for their recovery from traumatic psychological injury, including links to online counselling.
Get weekly health news
The site www.FirstRespondersMentalHealthNS.com is promoted by posters with the faces of first responders superimposed with phrases reflecting thoughts they may be keeping inside.
They include statements such as “It’s hard to quiet the voices in my head,” and “There’s this heavy feeling.”
The website, launched by a provincial steering committee, is modelled on a similar site in British Columbia, and it also contains links for family members living with a person with post-traumatic stress disorder.
- Alberta man told to take taxi to ER despite emergency bleeding after knee surgery
- ‘Extraordinarily foolish’: Video shared online shows boat jumping in BC Ferry’s wake
- Saskatchewan cities seeing record-high housing prices, low supply
- Road to the Referendum: Lessons from Quebec as Albertans decide whether to leave Canada
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 2, 2020.
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.