Health

18 HE ALTH • Spring 2019 An open-minded response Broader acceptance of help – and new ideas for keeping stress away – has brought firefighters to do things they maybe wouldn't have before, like yoga. "A few years ago, I'd say you're nuts, but there's a buy-in to do anything that will help," said Michael Papagni, a lieutenant in the Worcester Fire Department. "There's certainly a culture change in the last number of years." Worcester firefighters took yoga and learned breathing and other relaxing techniques last year at the UMass Medical School's Center for Mindfulness in Shrewsbury. Those courses complemented existing ongo- ing training that includes physical and mental wellbeing exercises. "That was a fantastic program," Dyer, one of the department's deputy chiefs, said. Firefighters learned how they can take a moment before head- "There's been a lot more recogni- tion in the industry that mental health is something that needs to be addressed," Britton said. "By virtue of the work that we do as EMS professionals, it exposes us to a lot of things that can cause acute stress on someone," he said. More is being done nationally, including by organizations like the Badge of Life, which trains law enforcement on mental health and suicide prevention, and the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance, which is working to provide behavioral health workshops to fire departments and EMS organizations. The Code Green Campaign has distributed resource cards to providers and collected sto- ries from first responders to help spread awareness. Heyman advocates for more sup- port from fire chiefs, who can have significant inf luence on policies for mental health. Some departments have routine mental health check-ups, but such reviews should be mandato- ry, she said. In Massachusetts, the Department of Fire Services has established a net- work of 17 teams responding to stress management from on-the-job inci- dents. The department provides train- ing for each of the teams and supports the OnSight Academy, a residential treatment facility for firefighters in Westminster. "ey're critically important to the first responder community," State Fire Marshal Peter Ostroskey said of those services, which he called indicative of a more proactive mindset among public safety officials that starts with firefighter recruits while they're still in training. Ostroskey, the Massachusetts fire mar- shal since 2016, said he's seen a major shi in attitudes toward mental health in the profession that tracks with a broader recognition that's taken place in society more broadly. Officials better understand the cul- mulative psychological effect of a career of traumatic events, not just particular instances, he said, contrast- ing mental health dangers to the more widely known physical dangers of the job. "It was an expectation that firefighting is a dangerous job, but sometimes some of these dangers are hidden," Ostroskey said. Continued from Page 17 " We're not necessarily therapists but peers. We train f iref ighters to help each other." Michael Papagni, Lieutenant, Worcester Fire Department Millbury firefighters battling a fire. In 2017, more first responders died from mental health issues than in the line of duty.

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