The city budget earmarks funds for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder in firefighters

The City of Windsor budget allocates five hundred thousand dollars for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder in firefighters.

We are doing this in case PTSD becomes a more serious problem among firefighters after it was recently added to the list of health conditions and recognized as an occupational disease among firefighters.

Windsor Fire Chief Steve Laforet has been fighting fires for almost 30 years, 21 of which have been on the front lines.

He worked at the center, out of Station One, for about 16 years. While he doesn’t identify as suffering from PTSD, he said the condition among paramedics may not be caused by a single case.

“It’s not necessarily one phone call that causes PTSD. It could be a culmination of a lot of things at work,” Laforet said. “Everyone experiences it differently.”

According to Laforet, there are more firefighters suffering from PTSD today than when he started his career.

“We have staff diagnosed with PTSD, unlike many years ago. We haven’t seen that diagnosis before.”

Laforet added that this does not mean the firefighters did not suffer from PTSD before — mental health was simply “not on the radar.”

A few years ago, Windsor Fire Department created a “Peer Support Team” to be deployed in case of an “unusual” emergency, Laforet said — but now they want to equip staff with the tools ahead of time.

“We want to get help sooner, before someone is diagnosed with PTSD.”

The fire department asked the city for $1 million and was awarded $500,000.

Employees will participate in training called The Path to Mental Readiness (R2MR), a program designed to improve short-term performance and long-term mental health outcomes.

R2MR also aims to reduce barriers and encourage early access to care. The Mental Health Commission of Canada is coordinating the rollout of the program to police and fire departments across the country.

“When we started developing the program in 2013, police organizations were the first to adopt it,” said Michael Pietrus, director of the Mental Health Commission of Canada. “But very quickly, we were hit by a firestorm. There’s one for paramedics, corrections, etc.”

Pietrus said programs vary by organization, largely due to the case studies used.

“Firefighters like to listen to firefighters, police officers like to listen to police officers,” Pietrus said.

Laforet said part of the training is making sure everyone knows they can respond differently to each situation. Another $170,000 in federal funding will also be used for mental health and wellness training.