Bttn. Chief Jeff Dill of the Palatine (Ill.) Rural Fire Protection District has formed the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance, a 501(c) (3) organization that will educate firefighters and EMS personnel and their families about issues such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and addiction, as well as firefighter suicides.
FBHA will be earmarking its first funds to providing free behavioral health workshops to fire departments across the United States, focusing on behavioral health awareness with a strong drive towards suicide prevention and promoting resources available to firefighters/EMS and their families. Specific behavioral health workshops will include "Internal Size-Up," which educates fire officers on how to look for signs and symptoms of behavioral-health problems, how to communicate with their employees, confidentiality, and roles/responsibilities.Future workshops will be directed at spouses/partners and children of firefighters/EMS.
In addition to increasing behavioral health awareness through speaking events, funding and training resources, the organization will work with licensed counselors across the United States to provide professional counseling at discounted rates or complementary for family members of firefighter suicides.
This new initiative is also designed to develop funding to assist surviving family members of firefighter suicides, host camps for children of firefighter suicides, and offer an educational scholarship program for children of firefighter suicides, as well as support firefighters and their families suffering from behavioral health issues.
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