ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Officials with the Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department are assuring the public that in order to better serve them, fire personnel must also take care of themselves.
The agency is working to expand its "Mental Mayday" program across the department to help employees experiencing behavioral and mental health problems. Using language more centric to fire crews, the program is currently being taught as part of the recruit training curriculum and certification courses.
The goal is to provide firefighters access to professional help and identify and mitigate a behavioral health crisis for themselves or others in the department. The program uses the industrywide term "mayday," which calls for immediate help in case a firefighter is injured, trapped or missing.
"We really do need to come together as a group and make that call even if we're not 100% certain what the issue is," Lt. Adam Bartman said. "Stigma, rumors and culture are some of the biggest obstacles that we've been facing since the creation of the fire service. We're the fixers and we're the problem solvers, so we don't allow ourselves to acknowledge the fact that we are allowed to have problems as well."
More firefighters die by suicide than in the line of duty, according to a 2018 report by the Ruderman Family Foundation.
A 2019 survey of 4,900 first responders including firefighters in Virginia discovered a vast number of public safety workers are experiencing more depression and suicidal thoughts.
Since Bartman started Mental Mayday two years ago, he said anecdotally, more firefighters are seeking help or inquiring about it. The conversation has also changed which to him indicates less stigma surrounding mental help.
Bartman created Mental Mayday out of his own personal experience when he went to rehab for his behavioral health issues. An accident during a fire in 2018 made him question his role as a firefighter and father, which eventually affected his performance at work and interaction at home. It was his wife who pushed him to get help.
"She really did call my mayday," Bartman said. "I was having really an inability to control my behavior. I was getting angry at a lot of stuff that maybe didn't warrant getting angry."
Bartman tells his story as part of the presentation. While he came up with program, clinical therapists or behavioral health technicians address exactly why members are experiencing a crisis.
Other jurisdictions have recently witnessed the presentations and are considering partnering with Fairfax County Fire & Rescue or implementing their own.
Earlier this month, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) announced his co-sponsorship of the bipartisan Helping Emergency Responders Overcome (HERO) Act, which pushes for the federal government o collect data on first responder suicides and develop best practices for identifying and treating post-traumatic stress disorder and combating suicide among firefighters.