The Essex Fire Department (EFD) is one of 20 fire departments in the country — and the only one in Vermont — to join a Drexel University study investigating how the COVID-19 pandemic impacts the mental health of first responders.
The study is run by the Center for Firefighter Injury Research and Safety Trends (FIRST Center) at the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University in Philadelphia. The study ran over six months said Stephen Trenholm, Essex Fire Department’s safety officer. An anonymous survey was sent out each month from May 2020 to October 2020.
EFD was “selected to represent not just their department in Vermont, but departments that look like them who aren't in the study across the United States,” said Jennifer Taylor, director of the FIRST Center.