By Stephanie Ashford
The St. Charles County Ambulance District, inspired by the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance, is participating in the “We Remember Night,” on Friday, May 20 to honor our brothers and sisters who have taken their own lives.
As a paramedic and training officer, I started following the amazing work done by FBHA in 2011 and subsequently, The Code Green Campaign in 2014. I had been working with post-9/11 Marines and Navy Corpsmen through the Focus Marines Foundation, which inspired my ongoing interest and research into the psychological and physiological attributes of PTSD. Early in my literature review, first responders emerged as one of the highest risk groups for developing PTSD symptoms; second only to military personnel.
There are many similarities between the types of moral injuries that first responders and military incur. The National Center for PTSD describes a moral injury as “Like psychological trauma, moral injury is a construct that describes extreme and unprecedented life experience including the harmful aftermath of exposure to such events.” Our culture largely downplays the aftermath of those injuries to the soul.
In too many workplaces, there exists a sort of unspoken shame around admitting our own vulnerability. And the nature of our work pressures us to suppress those invisible wounds, so that we can continue to operate in stressful environments.
It was alarming, but somehow not surprising, to see the suicide data collected by Capt. Jeff Dill (Ret.), FBHA founder. He found that first responder suicides are by and large carried out by active duty personnel, most of whom are 31 to 50 years old.
2015 appears to be the first year that documented first responder suicides outnumbered line of duty deaths. 2016 is poised to do the same. FBHA has already validated 47 reports of first responder suicide this year (as of May 14).
Participate in “We Remember Night”
Join the St. Charles County Ambulance District by participating in the FBHA’s “We Remember Night.” At 9 p.m. on May 20, we will run our emergency lights for one minute to honor the memory of the colleagues we have lost, and to help shine a light on this silent and growing epidemic.
With the support of my colleagues at St. Charles County Ambulance District, we created a “We Remember Night” video with images and this script from the FBHA.
“The third Friday in May is designated by Firefighter Behavioral Health alliance as WE REMEMBER night.
Tonight, (your service name) joins Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance and other fire and EMS organizations across the United States and Canada in remembering our brothers and sisters who took their own lives.
We run our lights for one minute to honor their memory; to symbolize to the families left behind, that we will always remember their loved ones.
So please bow your heads and pay tribute to our brothers and sisters.”
Share your department’s participation and inspire others by using the hashtags #WeRememberNight and #EveryoneGoesHome. And make sure your department’s personnel know about the important work being done and resources available from The Code Green Campaign and Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance.
About the author
Stephanie Ashford, M.Ed., NRP works for St. Charles County Ambulance District in the role of Training Officer. Since 1996, she has worked in the St. Louis area as an EMT, Firefighter, and Paramedic. She is a wife, mother, and in her free time volunteers with the Focus FOCUS Marine Foundation.