Virtual Peer Support for last responders
Dear Forensics Found community,
I just completed a two-day workshop with the 1st Responders Conferences - an amazing organization that bring health and wellness resources out to public service agencies. I was invited to share my own story and represented the last responder community yesterday. It was scary at first but the audience (271 first responders!) listened, learned, and supported me through the hour presentation. This conference travels all around the country so check their website for an opportunity to attend - I learned so much! The agenda included a financial wellness speaker (I learned how NOT to rely on overtime money), a lecture on how to maintain marriages and relationships while on-call and working shiftwork (its harder than you think), and other important topics to responders like addiction, mindset management, line of duty death grief management, and my personal favorite - yoga.
The last session was an open Q&A on Peer Support teams; a term I’d heard a few times but never experienced in my career. We’d been offered CISM (critical incident stress management) debriefing, once after a riot at the local federal prison and once after a trooper was murdered. And we had EAP - which ended up traumatizing the state therapists more than making me feel any better. But Peer Support is different. The goal of peer support is to provide all public safety employees in an agency the opportunity to receive emotional and tangible support through times of personal or professional crisis and to help anticipate and address potential difficulties. Ideally, peer support programs are developed and implemented under the organizational structure of the parent agency. Receiving support from the highest levels within an organization helps a peer support program to work effectively.
After the conference, I knew exactly what I needed to do next. I weaseled my way into a first responder Peer Support training program scheduled for mid-May. In two months, I’ll be certified to create and maintain a Peer Support group for last responders. I want to gauge interest in this group; I'm considering creating a separate platform off Facebook but still have a virtual component to provide maximum confidentiality and ease of access. I've found a few options but the variables for anonymity, virtual "rooms," going live, interacting similar to Facebook (but not FB) all require payment. Please share your thoughts here!
Since many of us work in smaller departments that may not have the staffing or management support for a Peer Support Team locally, why not build teams virtually?! Answers to this quiz will be depersonalized and aggregate results will be shared.
Please complete the questionnaire and provide feedback on your interest in Peer Support. Personally identifiable information will not be shared. Thank you!
Cheers,
Kat
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