At the March 13 Macomb Township Board of Trustees meeting, Macomb Township Fire Chief Robert Phillips recognized Macomb Township Sgt. James Peterson would like to thank the National Fire Academy for completing the Executive Officer Program. (Photo provided by: https://macombtwpmi.portal.civiccklek.com/event/399/media )
Macomb Township firefighters are now equipped with new tools to protect and maintain their mental health, thanks to a program developed by Fire Sgt. James Peterson.
Peterson is the first person from the Macomb Township Fire Department to complete the National Fire Academy Executive Officer Program. He was recognized for this accomplishment at the March 13 Macomb Township Board of Trustees meeting. Fire Chief Robert Phillips explained the program during the presentation of Peterson’s administrative officer certificate.
“The goal of this program is to foster and strengthen the professional growth of fire service leaders while developing future leaders through a combination of education, talent and ideas,” Roberts said.
Program participants will receive instruction in leadership, community risk reduction, firefighter and community safety, modern training challenges, and analytical tools for decision-making, Phillips said. He said students will also gain insight into national response planning and incident management.
“This two-year program consists of four unique courses that require participants to develop and complete a capstone project that directly benefits firefighters, the fire department, and the community.” Phillips says Mr. “Capstone projects give students the opportunity to demonstrate the application of course theory and concepts to real-life situations.”
This final project will then be evaluated through formal peer review, he added.
“Sgt. Peterson’s capstone project consisted of developing and implementing a comprehensive firefighter mental health program for our department. This program consisted of training focused on mental health. “This will be conducted quarterly throughout September for all fire department personnel, specifically on firefighter suicide prevention,” Phillips said.
Peterson knew from a young age that he wanted to be a firefighter. He studied fire studies at Schoolcraft His College and Macomb His Community College and also holds state certifications.
“I started working here as a paid on-call, and then as opportunities became available, I went full-time,” Peterson said.
He said the Macomb Township Fire Department offers firefighters the opportunity to attend the National Fire Academy in Maryland. Mr. Peterson went to a class a few years ago and learned about the executive officer program. The National Fire Academy’s Executive Officer Program consists of four courses of approximately one week each in Maryland. They are taught by industry leaders, often fire chiefs from across the country. Peterson started the program in 2019, but the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused some delays in its completion and it was not completed until 2023.
“One of the projects in class is to find out what your department could benefit from, like training or change. That’s when you look at your department, analyze it, and figure out what would benefit you the most. It’s time to find out what’s going to happen,” Peterson said.
Peterson added that he decided to focus the project on firefighter mental health because he believed Macomb Township’s fire department had room for more training on the subject.
“With the permission of the fire chief, you have to present to the fire chief what you think will be helpful to the fire department, and then you have to basically write a paper and analysis and submit it to the fire chief, and the fire chief says yes or no. I’ll get back to you,’” Peterson said.
Once Peterson got the green light for the project from Phillips, he threw himself into research. While COVID-19 delayed some of his classes, it also gave him the opportunity to do more in-depth research, including speaking with a fire department chaplain. He spent about two years developing the program. Once the project was completed in September 2023, Peterson submitted it to Phillips for approval. Once he received it, the project was submitted to the National Fire Academy. The Academy approved the project in December 2023.
“We’re definitely going to implement this program into our training. So every year we set aside a special time in September as Suicide Prevention Month and do some kind of training on suicide prevention. And basically What we’re trying to do is start there first and then the mental thing: health awareness, follow-up, different ways of dealing with it personally or asking for help, what kind of help. availability,” Peterson said.
At the Macomb Township Fire Department, firefighter training typically takes place every Monday for about two hours. With Phillips’ approval, the mental health program was first implemented as part of the training in September 2023. A second section on mental health was incorporated into classes in October 2023, another section was incorporated in November 2023, and the final section was incorporated in March of this year, Peterson said. He served as manager of the program, which was taught by the department’s chaplain.
“Every year we get together and plan for the next year and try to make sure we get those classes in. It could be a quarterly thing,” Peterson said.
