Listen to this article
Emergency responders deal with trauma every day. They witness the aftermath of a terrible car accident. They hear desperate cries for help on the other end of the phone. They see families in dire straits as their homes are destroyed by fire. They call loved ones to deliver devastating news.
Answering that call every shift is no easy task.
Firefighters and police officers are more likely to commit suicide than die in the line of duty, according to a white paper study by the Ruderman Family Foundation, which looked at data from 2017 and cited mental health and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after witnessing a traumatic event as some of the reasons emergency personnel commit suicide.
As part of its support for emergency responders, Harford County has announced resources for staff to use at their fingertips. The county has partnered with the Lighthouse Health and Wellness app to provide its 2,800 career and volunteer paramedics with resources to help them get through difficult days, including articles, self-assessments and daily messages of support.
The collaboration was spearheaded by Sandra Galyon, a paramedic, prevention associate and academic detailer, and Laura Potts, Harford County 911 dispatcher and peer support coordinator for the Department of Emergency Services. Both have seen compassion fatigue among paramedics, especially during the opioid epidemic and COVID-19 pandemic. They both felt that an app that paramedics could use anonymously would be a great resource.
The Lighthouse Health and Wellness app is run by retired emergency medical personnel who understand the trauma police, fire, EMS and dispatchers face in the line of duty.
RELATED: From opioids to insurance, survey reveals biggest challenges facing Maryland’s mental health services
“The app is essentially a friend in your hand that you can use to guide you on where to go,” Potts said.
Potts leads the county’s peer support team, which helps dispatchers with particularly difficult calls.
“It’s not always what you see,” she said, “but what you hear. As a dispatcher, it’s like reading an adventure or mystery book, but most of the time you don’t know the outcome of the call, so you don’t get to hear the ending. So we end up making up an ending in our own mind, and it’s likely going to end worse than it actually is, but we never get a clear sense of what happened.”
While the team remains available, the new app, which debuted in Harford County in February, provides quicker assistance by providing one-click access to support team members.
“Our team is basically our thinking buoy to help you get through these difficult times,” Potts said. “We hope that you can ask for help, get help, get back to work and come out stronger.”
Gallion noted there’s a stigma around paramedics admitting they need help or are in pain. They’re told to “hold on” and “do something.” The app allows paramedics to ask for help anonymously, so they can ask for help without feeling embarrassed or scared. “It’s an advantage for paramedics,” Gallion said.
RELATED: Sheppard Pratt Psychiatric Urgent Care Center improves access to mental health care in Maryland
Harford County Mayor Bob Cassilly is a military veteran who served three years in Iraq, and he said he understands the impact of being in a traumatic situation, how it can affect a person’s mental health and the consequences if the issue isn’t addressed.
Cassilly gladly agreed and said his only request was for Gallion and Potts to show him how to use the app because he wants to give paramedics a great product that the county can be confident in. The app was paid for out of the county’s general fund and cost about $14,000 to ensure paramedics have access to all resources at no cost.
Potts is pleased with the positive adoption of the app by emergency responders so far, and she and Gallion plan to go out into the emergency responder community and promote the app’s benefits.
“I just want to create more than just a community among paramedics,” Potts said, “… I just want to educate and help everybody understand that if (they) agree to respond to these horrible, tragic events and calls, they don’t have to suffer and there is a community out there that will support them.”
