First Responders Need Help Too: Crisis Hotline Caters To Emergency Workers [NPR Weekend Edition]

Gail Kennedy 5/13/177:07 PM

Frank Farry is a state representative in the 142nd Legislative District in Pennsylvania, as well as a volunteer firefighter. He created a crisis hotline to provide support for first responders.

Courtesy Pennsylvania House of Representatives/Courtesy Pennsylvania House of Representatives

The people who leap into action first during crises — police, firefighters and paramedics — have established hotlines in many places for fellow emergency workers who find that they need help too. One of the latest is in Bucks County, Pa., where Frank Farry, a state representative as well as a volunteer firefighter, created that hotline.

Launched in January of this year, the Bucks County First Responder Peer Support is available 24/7 and is staffed by volunteers who are or were previously first responders.

Farry told NPR's Scott Simon that he was inspired to launch the hotline after two local first responders committed suicide less than a year apart. He talks about the importance of peer support for emergency workers, collaborating with other first responders and why people in emergency services often find it difficult to ask for help.

Tolisten or read the full interview go HERE

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Comments (2)

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Christine Cissy WhiteIt's not trauma-informed unless it's informed by trauma survivors.

Gail:

I bet this peer support programs benefits those helping as much as those helped. I don't often think of the impact on first responders. Thanks for sharing! Cis

5/15/179:09 AM

Rick Herranz Sr.Member

Good Morning Gail

I am so grateful that PEOPLE ARE RECOGNIZING the COMMON HUMANITY we share with First responders. I am a retired law enforcement for almost 20 years now. Most of the men and women in the criminal justice system turn to some type of addiction , like ALCOHOLISM..... Many JUDGES and High OFFICIALS are still playing the double life of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde and are intentionally hiding their dark side in dealing with UNTREATED POST TRAUMATIC DISORDER. This type of LABEL is so stigmatized in the Military and Para- Military organizations in the American culture. It will need some help from groups like this to turn the light on that dark side of those wounded human beings in which WE SHARE OUR HUMANITY WITH....it will take activist groups like ACE to redeem this population. Lets start talking about that 800 LB ELEPHANT we all see in this population because we are not in DENIAL or DELUSION anymore. We are AWAKE now.

Rick Herranz

Sunday 05/14/17

5/14/173:20 AM

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