First Responder Resiliency Program
Program Description
First Responders experience unavoidable stress and traumatic events in the course of their vocation. If these challenges are not dealt with in a productive manner they can lead to emotional and behavioral health problems. Since many of the current ways to deal with these challenges revolve around assistance and treatment after the event, the Illinois Fire Service Institute has sought to change the fire service culture relative to mental health and resiliency by adding training to many of its courses. This culture change will occur by helping First Responders to be aware of the components of resiliency when they encounter stressful events.
On November 17, 2016, IFSI Director – Colonel Royal Mortenson, USMC (Ret.), issued a directive to develop First Responder Resiliency Awareness curriculum for inclusion in all IFSI courses 24 hours and greater. Director Mortenson’s action means over 70 IFSI courses will soon include mental health information in the course presentation. Once integrated, IFSI instructors will share the mental health message with over 4,500 First Responders every year. His imperative emphasizes that the purpose of including First Responder resiliency material in IFSI courses is to promote awareness, not magically make First Responders more resilient.
The family and founders of RE:ACT –The Lt. Ryan Elwood: Awareness, Counseling and Training for First Responders made a generous donation to the Illinois Fire Service Institute to aid in the development of the Mental Health and Resiliency curriculum.
After the decision was made to include Mental Health and Resiliency Awareness in IFSI curriculum, the first task was to assemble a team of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to help guide the “content portion” of the curriculum development process. In gathering this team, Institute Staff reached out to the Presidents of the Associated Firefighters of Illinois, Illinois Fire Chiefs Association and the Volunteer/Combination Officer Conference in order to ensure that our SMEs were not only experts in the mental health field, but also represented the over 42,000 firefighters in the State.
Resiliency Project Team and SMEs
| Name | Representing |
|---|---|
Chief James Moore – Project Director |
Illinois Fire Service Institute |
Chief Patrick Kenny |
Illinois Fire Chiefs Association |
Dr. Terry von Thaden |
Illinois Fire Service Institute |
Deputy Chief Paul Gardner (Ret.) |
Illinois Fire Service Institute |
Dr. Cody Todd |
NCC Red Tail Clinical Counseling |
Engr. Kurt Glosser |
Illinois Fire Service Institute |
Battalion Chief Dan DeGryse |
Rosecrance Florian Program |
Jada Hudson |
Hudson Clinical Counseling |
Lt. Matt Olson |
Associated Firefighters of Illinois |
Assistant Chief Art Zern |
Illinois Firefighter Peer Support |
FF Kevin Coffey (Ret.) |
Faith Based Chaplains |
Once assembled, the SMEs quickly got to work on designing three specific periods of instruction (30, 60 & 90 minute) to meet the time constraints of our various programs. From there, objectives were developed, then content was provided to meet the objectives. This is where the first affirmation of the program occurred. As staff reviewed the volume of information provided by the SMEs, it confirmed their assessment that firefighters are a resilient bunch that answer the call when others don’t. Unfortunately, they don’t completely recover from the challenges they face. With this affirmation in mind, staff concluded that this program should address mental health awareness from the perspective of resiliency, because firefighters will inevitably experience some challenges as first responders and as family members. It is at this point that the mental health program became the First Responder Resiliency Project to better reflect our intention of helping first responders to identify the challenges they will face and how to find healthy ways to recover and grow.
With this, we were able to focus our content and curriculum development toward the components of resiliency with the understanding that all firefighters need a positive support system in order to be the community servants and people they desire to be.
As the curriculum development process is on-going our SMEs remain passionately engaged and continue to generously lend their time, their talent, and their ideas. The degree of collaboration has been encouraging and will no doubt ultimately lead to improved awareness and resiliency of mental health in the fire service.
Effective August 1, 2017, all IFSI courses 24 hours and greater will include Resiliency Training.
Future plans for the Resiliency Project include:
- Development of a 4 hour Resiliency Course for the Cornerstone Program.
- Development of a 24 hour Resiliency Course.
As a leader in fire service training and education, the Illinois Fire Service Institute’s First Responder Resiliency Project will help to bring the importance of physical and mental well-being to all First Responders.