Canada lost 23 firefighters to suicide in the first part of 2014

Canada has a huge problem with PTSD. So does the UK. So does Australia. So does America. So do most countries and the ones hit hardest are the ones civilians depend on the most.

They are emergency responders showing up at accidents on the road while the rest of us complain about the traffic and they are not just trying to save lives, but zipping up bodies into bags.

They are firefighters showing up all over the place from the roads to apartment buildings and homes, never knowing when the next call will be their last while we complain our tax dollars pay them to stand around and wait for it to happen.

They are cops on the streets and sheriffs on county roads making sure people behave and when they don't, they risk their lives just trying to stop them from doing worse but we complain about them, blame them and now, they are being attacked.

What most people don't get is most of them are either veterans or members of the National Guards. One more group we claim to honor yet facts prove we don't.

They are all the first to be there when we need help yet the last to ask for help when they need it. When they finally do ask, the help they need isn't there. No matter how much people love to claim they are doing whatever they can, the truth is, it has all been a better than nothing approach to people who constantly give their best up to and including their lives.

This story is out of Canada but it applies to the US as well.

Firefighters raise calls for help with PTSD
'A lot of times you wish your mind would remove what your eyes have seen'
CBC News
Posted: Dec 31, 2014

A Yukon fire crew at work. Some firefighters are calling for legislation like Alberta's that recognizes post-traumatic stress disorder as a hazard of the job. 'This is a very real occupational exposure,' says Ken Block, Edmonton’s fire chief.
(submitted by Jim Regimbal)

Chris Cleland started as a volunteer ambulance driver at age 16. In 2000, he moved on to volunteer firefighting. Over the years, he’s seen many things. “Been to multiple calls of fatalities and calls of friends and what not,” he says.

Last spring, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I don't, won't say that I was at that point of going to suicide, but I wasn't too far away from it.”

Cleland says the challenge he faced getting his treatment covered shows the need for more provinces and territories to follow Alberta’s lead in making it easier for PTSD to be recognized as a hazard of the job.

The Association of Yukon Fire Chiefs is also calling on the Yukon government to give special recognition to PTSD.

“A lot of times you wish your mind would remove what your eyes have seen, some of the fires you're going to and some of the smells and things that you see at the fire,” says Dawson City Fire Chief Jim Regimbal.

“You put them in the back of your brain but they have a tendency to creep back up.”

Regimbal says Canada lost 23 firefighters to suicide in the first part of 2014.

He helped Cleland get coverage through the Yukon Workers Compensation Board — a process Cleland says "felt like “being left behind."

"He first came to me in May," Regimbal says, "and it wasn't until, let's say, October that his case was approved by WCB."
read more here

PTSD I Grieve

(Moved from Great Americans)
I posted this with the video in 2010.

NamGuardianAngel commented on July 25, 2010
This is why we all need to get the word out about this,,,,, National Guard and Reserve suicide rates climbing By DAVID GOLDSTEIN McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON -- Suicides among Army and Air National Guard and Reserve troops have spiked this year, and the military is at a loss to explain why. Sixty-five members of the Guard and Reserve took their own lives during the first six months of 2010, compared with 42 for the same period in 2009. The grim tally is further evidence that suicides continue to plague the military even though it's stepped up prevention efforts through counseling and mental health awareness programs. http://www.miam­iherald.com/2010­/07/25/1745790/n­ational-guard-and-reserve-suicide.html

The worst thing is, nothing has really changed in all these years. There are just more people doing whatever instead of what is needed.