"Counselors Help SC Firefighters Address Job's Stress" The Herald - April 11. 2010
Summary: In 2007 the fire at the Sofa Super Store in Charleston, SC killed 9 firefighters. Since then around 200 firefighters have sought help through a counseling program. 37 firefighters have said they have post-traumatic stress disorder since the fire. Charleston Fire Chief Thomas Carr hopes the Firefighter Support Team will continue. He believes the program helps firefighters stay mentally fit and work through problems. The Team's annual budget helps pay salaries for three clinical counselors and a part-time psychologist, also retired firefighters do peer counseling.
Application: This article relates to chapter 11: stress. The job a firefighter does can be a stressor. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a disorder resulting from exposure to a major stressor, with symptoms of anxiety, nightmares, poor sleep, reliving the event, and concentration problems lasting for more than one month. The fire that killed 9 firefighters is a major stressor and a traumatic event, causing some of the men to have PTSD.
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This is a great article about stress and post traumatic stress syndrome. I think it is important that we provide things like that for our emergency workers. They go through stressful situations all the time and many people overlook the needs they have.
ReplyDeleteHey Jen, I agree with Tim, this is a great article, and it just goes to show that regardless of a certain job, you sometimes can not get use to tragic, hurt or pain of others.
ReplyDeleteI saw this article, but didn't read it.
Jackie Ervin