Firefighter Mental Health Support – Why Wellness Matters in the Fire Service

Fighting fires causes extreme stress, long shifts, traumatic events, and risk taking and overtime causes more stress over time. Stress can quickly or gradually affect mental health such as anxiety, depression, or PTSD. Fighting Mental health programs provide capabilities such as counseling, peer support networks, and resilience training. Mental health initiatives compliment our health and fitness which functions to better our mental health and teams, increasing our overall capacity to perform as a healthier, well-balanced team. Departments functioning at the highest levels have a healthy morale, communication, teamwork, and even increasing community safety. Mental health supports are not only similar to other content, but resiliency and healthy support, where firefighters are more vested to thrive through adversity.