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Morristown-Hamblen EMS Department invited several local first responders to its facility to provide them with several mental health resources.

Danny Houseright, director of Morristown-Hamblen EMS, highlighted the importance of mental health awareness for first responders.

“There’s a pandemic going on in EMS and public safety and its mental health,” he said. “There is not enough attention being drawn to it.”

“There are several senior members who have been in the business for a long time and over the years the message has been ‘suck it up buttercup’ and deal with the stress.

“Times have changed and mental health awareness has grown leaps and bounds and now we can fix people before they are unfixable.”

Houseright explained how offering these services to local responders is imperative to the community.

“We offered this information in house, but it is much bigger than just us,” he said. “All of public safety and even nurses put themselves through so much and experience so much stress and we all need ways to cope with that type of trauma.”

“It’s not just one single event that affects us, it’s hundreds of events that make up our trauma and if you don’t find a way to cope with it and heal it will be like death from a paper cut.”

“I want to change the stigma and the culture around mental health here at EMS and all emergency services,” he said. “I want people to know it’s ok not to be ok, reach out for help we will help you.”

Jason Fox, EMS Liaison & Emergency Management Coordinator at Tennova Healthcare, echoed Houseright’s sentiments.

“It’s not always a large-scale event,” Fox said. “It’s the small things that are accumulated, compounded and exacerbated by everyday life. It’s the finances, your home life, and your physical health that weigh you down and you need to find a way to work through that stress.”

Reboot First Responder Representatives Diana and John Fox, husband and wife and retired first responders, presented the 12 week course to the group.

“We are not experts, we are people who lived it and we share our experiences with our students,” Diana Fox said.

The course is faith-based and peer-led and helps first responders and their families heal from critical incident stress and trauma.

“What is so special about Reboot is that it doesn’t just work with the first responder who is in need of healing, they also help the entire family understand what the individual is going through and how they can help throughout the healing process,” Jason Fox said.

The practical tools and teaching found in this course are specifically designed for those within law enforcement, fire, EMS, emergency communications, hospital emergency and corrections communities.

“The program started as Reboot Combat Recovery and after the influx of mass shootings and other horrible acts they saw many first responders signing up for their class,” Diana Fox said. “So they then changed the language to the course work and curriculum to fit with first responders and it kept growing.”

Fox explained the growth of the course, but also her desire to reach more first responders who may not believe they need the course.

“We will be having our twelfth class this fall and each class keeps getting bigger and bigger,” she said. “We really wished we had people come to our class who were curious and wanted to learn more instead of waiting until they crash and burn.”

“We want to help them before it’s too late. We have so many people who come to us and think they’re the only one hurting, they’re the only one with this trauma and that’s not the case. So many of us go through this alone and we don’t have to.”

Each week, participants progress through our trauma healing curriculum with a lesson guided by the local leader.

“It’s a great program and it allowed us to begin working on our healing,” John Fox said. “It’s not a lecture. It’s a conversation. Every participant plays a part in helping one another.”

The Tennessee Disaster Mental Health Strike Team Kristy Tipton, division director at Frontier Health and TDMHST representative, explained the group’s existence.

“We have around 200 members around the State of Tennessee,” Tipton said. “We are team through the Tennessee Federation of Fire Chaplains that consists of first responders, mental health providers, chaplains that help provide mental health services to those in public safety organizations.

“This team in no way displaces or replaces mental health services. However, this team is highly trained in mental health screening, mental health first aid, crisis intervention, and most importantly: effective referral.”

In January 2019, the Tennessee Department of Health, in collaboration with the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, established the Tennessee Disaster Mental Health Strike Team through the Tennessee Federation of Fire Chaplains (TFFC).

The TFFC provides training and management of the Strike Team which includes a State-Wide deployment-capable cadre of trained Chaplain, Mental Health, and Emergency Service Peer Professionals.

Tipton explained how the work first responders do can be overwhelming and how it’s important to not let it consume them.

“You have to learn to be present in your family and prioritize what is important to you. Our jobs can consume us so it’s important to learn how to do those things and we can work with you through those things,” Tipton said. “It’s also important to learn that what you’re feeling is okay. It’s okay to be angry, sad or frustrated, but not expressing those emotions is where you can get in trouble.”

Tipton challenged each responder present to reach out to their peers in times of need and offer those help.

“I challenge each one of you that when you see your peers down or in pain to go up to them and ask them how they’re doing and offer a lending ear; it will do wonders.”

“Just being present in that moment will help them in more ways than you could imagine. If they tell you something that you don’t think you can handle alone, reach out to your commanding officers so you can find them the help they need.”