PTSD in First Responders' Mental Health

People that work as first responders deal with so many health issues that can cause post-traumatic stress disorders. When on the scene a first responder never knows what he/she is going to see or deal with. It can be as simple as nothing bad at all to something being very serious and can cause psychological health issues. There are many potential health issues first responders can face, as dealing with on-the-scene problems can affect someone’s mental health.

First responders are there to help people when they are distressed, but they can also be fighting with things that are going on in their minds, such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

When they are on a call they never know what they are gonna face it could be from something so small as someone having a small cut to a death matter, these things can mentally and physically mess with someone´s health. When first responders are on a scene it is hard for them to tell if it is going to be a bad/good or clean scene.

There are a lot of first responders that have psychological and mental health issues, due to being on a “bad” scene and getting traumatized.

Everyone thinks it’s easy being a first responder or on a rescue team and that it doesn’t faze them when seeing something traumatic on a job. A first responder that is traumatized by an on-the-scene traumatic experience can face a lot of health issues, they may not know how to handle the issue.

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First responders dealing with PTSD might not know how to handle all the things that can go on in their heads. Seeing one bad traumatic experience can mess with someone’s mental health. And it can cause them to do things they have never seen themselves doing. Two Victoria police officers have taken their lives due to mental health issues, ¨Victoria Police is grappling with the suicides of two officers in a week, as it awaits a high-level review of mental health issues within the force that is expected to recommend an overhaul of support services.¨

Cops and other emergency organizations can have crises in their lives. They can be dealing with things that everyday people don’t/cadon’t deal with. Seeing gruesome things can cause people to go insane. First responders are going into a different type of training that helps them deal with PTSD for handling mental health issues. When in this type of work you never know what is going on in someone’s life or mind, they can act like everything is fine, when in reality they are crying out for help just like the people they help and they are there for. Paramedics dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder think about the worst things in life, it can even cause them to think about contemplating death. All the stuff they see and go through can cause serious health problems.

People are trying to make classes that people who are dealing with psychological and mental health issues can take to help them get over the dramatic effects that it has on their lives. Emergency services are dealing with PTSD and some of them can not handle it. People that work in these forces want it to change so they can take classes that will help them to deal with these things. ¨Police officers, firefighters, and paramedics are still reluctant to seek help with post-traumatic stress disorder because of the stigma attached to mental health issues within their occupations” (Why Emergency). People who deal with these kind of things must this kind because they may take their own life, due to so much stuff that happens when on the scene.

When a rescue or paramedic personnel is on the scene and sees something that is very disturbing it can scare them for life because there are things in the world that we can’t just get over and move on and act like nothing ever happened. On a scene there can be many situations that can go on or happen, everyone isn’t built to do this line of work, don’t get me wrong not just anyone can do this. It takes a very strong person to do this even then it’s hard to get over that one bad thing that can trigger a dramatic experience, not everyone can just go out and face this kind of work. What’s even sadder is when a first responder goes on a call and finds out it’s someone they know and they let the things sink into their minds and it breaks them down.

Dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder is hard to do alone. Therefore, people who are dealing with it need to seek help. Every call a first responder goes on can affect their lives. No one understands how bad it can be in this line of work, everyone that doesn’t do this every day thinks that first responders are strong which they are but, things can bother them as well. They may seem like everything is fine and okay but, deep down they can be suffering from this disorder. They go home after a long day of work and tell their families what has happened and still act as if nothing was wrong. But when they are alone it can be haunting them and they want closure to know that it’s okay its just part of life.

When dealing with PTSD it doesn’t have to be something you have seen are witnessed but it can be violence, sexual harassment, and bullying. Some people don’t think that people in the emergency workforce may not deal with things like this but they do. ¨Jill Hennessy said a comparison of the state’s ambulance service’s rates of PTSD, suicide, anxiety, and WorkCover with analogous organizations nationally and overseas had revealed problems.

‘Our early observations are quite disturbing – we have a significant issue around PTSD,’ she told Victoria’s Public Accounts and Estimates Committee. ‘We often think of PTSD as a response to a horrific tragedy that paramedics may have to respond to, but just like many other workforces sometimes it’s the slow burn..” (PTSD).