Emergency responders have always struggled to seek mental health help following a crisis on the job or in their personal lives.
The coronavirus pandemic has amplified that struggle, a local health expert said.
“There’s a lot of folks, whether that be first responders or the community at-large, that experiences a traumatic incident and doesn’t really know how to deal with some of the things that they seen or that they heard or that they witnessed,” Julie Manuel, a Kettering Health clinical program manager, said. The “turning point” for the Dayton community was 2019, when area first responders dealt with the aftermath of a tornadoes in May, a mass shooting in August and a multitude of other emergency events, according to Manuel.
Kettering Behavioral Medicine Center in Moraine is offering an intensive outpatient program that offers support for the mental health and well-being of emergency personnel.