Mental health in the first responder arena is consistently placed on the back burner as responders are often too busy caring for others to care for themselves and treating their own mental health is long overdue.  Recently Heartland Medical Direction formed the first of its kind, multi-agency multi-discipline, peer support team.  The team was trained by The Warrior’s Rest Foundation to offer rural Oklahoma first responders the mental health help that they need and deserve.  The team is activated and deploys whenever a first responder, whether that may be a dispatcher, law enforcement, fire or EMS needs crisis intervention after a traumatic event.

This team is funded strictly off grants and donations, which are used to train and equip the team as well as provide funding to first responders who may be financially restricted from accessing professional mental health help.  Our motto has long been, “we saved a life today” as we train first responder agencies daily on life-saving skills to use in the field with their patients, but it is time we also save the lives of our own first responders.  After our individual and group sessions we poll the attendees and ask if any of them would be able to access professional mental health at an out of pocket cost. It was rare to see even one hand raised.

As our team is newly formed, we will be hosting an evening fun night as part of the 3rd Annual David Wade Memorial Active Attack Conference.  Deputy Wade was killed in the line of duty 5 years ago.  This four day conference brings dispatchers, fire departments, law enforcement, and EMS together to train on active shooter situations and life-saving skills.  Wednesday, July 20th, at Chicken-n-Pickle, in Oklahoma City, Heartland Education’s Critical Incident Stress Management Team will be hosting a cornhole tournament and silent auction.

Until now, professional mental health has been financially inaccessible for our first responders, but these donations will change that.  We sincerely appreciate all assistance in helping us raise funds via a donation to our silent auction to continue our support of our own Oklahoma first responders.  Thank you for helping us, “save a life today!”

With gratitude,

The Heartland Peer Support Team