During his 12-year career as a Harrisonburg firefighter, Gene Thompson heard story after story about his fellow first responders throughout the country killing themselves.
Roughly 115 firefighters and emergency medical providers committed suicide in 2017, according to the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance.
“I really got tired of seeing the number of suicides by first responders,” he said. “That number is unacceptable.”
To help lower the number, Thompson and his wife, Sarah Thompson, founded Virginia First Responder Support Services in April 2017 to help train first responders to be peer support mentors.
On Saturday and Sunday, the husband and wife held a two-day training session for first responders in the Shenandoah Valley.