Building PTSD Resilience and Prevention Seminars
103 firefighters died by suicide in 2017, compared to 93 firefighter line-of-duty deaths, according to the Ruderman Family Foundation, a philanthropic organization that fights for the rights of people with disabilities. The study also found that little has been done to address PTSD and depression in responders, even though they are five times more likely than civilians to suffer from symptoms...
Mental health care is something we have been hearing more often in EMS and Fire. This has been growing in response to the amount of people affected in this line of work. We are seeing more and more depression, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, excess eating, PTSD and even suicides.
We found that since we were small kids, up to when we finish our EMS or Fire career, we are taught many things that fast track us to depression, addiction, PTSD and suicide.
From EASPA’S Foundation, a non profit organization in Argentina, we have also been working on PTSD for some years now. We are an emergency care training facility. For several years we have noticed that it was great working on PTSD, but we started thinking if there could be another way, a way of preventing it.
We started doing a lot of research on this. If 50 years ago, somebody came over and told us that a heart problems could be prevented, we would have just denied it. Today we know we can work on the diet, reducing stress, do exercise, etc, and that helps reduce heart problems. We cannot eradicate heart problems, but we can reduce them by focusing on the risk factors.
Three years ago, we started finding answers to our questions when we started looking more into the Humanistic Psychology. It was when we focused on the risk factors that lead to depression, addiction, PTSD and suicide, where we realized that we were doing things the wrong way.
We need to start changing the way we see ourselves, what being in this line of work really is, and learning tools to be able to cope with the feelings we have.
EMS and Fire is a very stressful line of work, and if we don’t start changing how we see ourselves or how we deal with our emotions, we are doomed.
We cannot change the things we see in our work, but we can change how we react to what we see or experience.
Topics covered in the seminars:
We offer 1 hour up to 6 hours seminars, with tools to be able to cope better with high stressful situations.
If you would like to view an online lecture on Building PTSD Resiliency and Prevention, please click here.
These lectures or seminars are offered both in English and Spanish.
These lectures have been offered in:
- EMS world Americas, Colombia - September 2017
- Northville, Michigan USA - Junio 2018
- Aeropuerto de Osorno, Chile - July 2018
- Bomberos de Puerto Montt - July 2018
- VI Expo Congreso Bomberos, Saltillo, Mexico - July 2018
- Reserva San Lorenzo, Saltillo, Mexico - July 2018
- Municipio de Escobar, Buenos Aires, Argentina - September 2018.
- EMS world Americas, Queretaro, Mexico - September 2018.
- Firefighters of Llanquihue, Chile - October 2018.
- Condor Police Base Mendoza, Argentina - October 2018.
Possible dates 2018/2019:
- Osorno, Chile 2018. Seminar 6hs.
- 20th of December Bs As, Argentina 2018. Seminar 3hs.
- March Quito, Ecuador 2019.
- March Guayaquil, Ecuador 2019. Seminar 6hs.
- Guatemala 2019. Seminar 6hs.
- USA 2019. Seminar 90' and 6hs.
We want to thank our sponsors for their support:
- Statpacks. Within the USA, they develop amongst the best backpacks and bags.
- Active 911 Iberoamérica. Within the USA, EMS and Fire dispatch system.
- Plus Care Ambulancias. Within Mexico, they offer National and International Air Ambulance service.
- iSimulate. Within the USA, they offer the best training monitor / defibrillators.
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