By Safe Call Now’s Dr. Laura Brodie Ph.D.
Something that is not recognized by many in the civilian world is that our First Responders as a whole are more psychologically healthy than the general population at the time of hiring. How can I say this? Well, very few careers require the psychological screening and assessment that First Responders have to pass in order to obtain their job.
In doing such a screening, the hope is to protect the public from someone who is unsafe, but the hidden benefit is to hopefully protect the individual doing the job from many of the psychological disorders that can develop from this type of work. So, if we use the premise that First Responders are more psychologically healthy than their civilian counterpart, why are we seeing the psychological problems we are seeing within First Responders? Problems like substance abuse, high divorce rates and suicide? Theoretically, this should not be happening, but it is rampant. Why?
Continue reading “Burnout, Depression Or… Is It Leading to Suicide?”
