Hendersonville fire and police departments could soon be getting a new addition.
At Wednesday's special-call Hendersonville City Council meeting, the heads of both departments requested that an "embedded" mental health clinician join their ranks, one day each week. "Having a trained professional in-house for first responders to speak with could alleviate some of the high-stress burdens of the job," said Hendersonville Fire Chief James Miller. "We had three children under the age of four die within a three-week period," Miller continued. "When you're dealing with that -- high incidents of drug overdose, suicide, stabbings, shootings, car accidents where people are getting injured, COVID that we've been dealing with on and off for a solid two years -- it certainly puts a challenge on us working day in and day out."