The First Responder Center for Excellence (FRCE) is committed to promoting quality educational awareness and research to reduce physical, emotional, and psychological health and wellness issues for first responders. As part of the FRCE’s mission, the following comprehensive Behavioral Health Awareness Training has been developed to address and support all aspects of first responder behavioral health. This training has been organized into a series of six separate modules to allow for distributed training and ongoing discussions. While instructor-led presentation is the preferred method of delivery, the six modules can also be integrated into any distance learning platform to allow for asynchronous delivery.
The behavioral health topics have been divided into the following Modules:
Module I: Recognition of Behavioral Health Stressors
Module I will connect the dots between job-related stress and behavioral health.
Module II: Post-Crisis Management and Coping Mechanisms
Module II discusses the tools and skills first responders can use to protect themselves from the stress responses discussed in Module I.
Module III: Recognizing and Addressing High-Risk Behaviors
Module III discusses how fighting fires and saving lives can take an enormous mental and physical toll on first responders. As a result, first responders are an occupational group that is at “high-risk” of induced stress effects such as nightmares, insomnia, or mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.
Module IV: Building Personal Resilience
In order to help increase resiliency, first responders must both recognize and limit external stressors. In Module IV we will conduct a personal stress inventory.
Module V: Building and Utilizing Peer Networks
First responders are accustomed to working in teams. Module V will focus on translating the already familiar team-based approach into building psychological peer support networks.
Module VI: Family Support
Module VI focus will shift to strengthening the relationship between the first responder and their family. By maintaining strong family relationships, both the first responder, and their families, will be more resilient to the stress related to emergency services work.