“It just put me in a whole different mindset, that had me mentally imbalanced and irrationally doing things in an OCD type style. Once diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder I have never been able to hold a job for any length of time because the trauma comes with triggers.” Isna T. Summerlin.
CONYERS Ga. (CBS46) -- May is mental health awareness month and its estimated that up to 20% of veterans suffer with PTSD.
Those numbers can be broken down by conflict with each war averaging anywhere from 11-20% of vets with PTSD. But, what about those who didn't go to war and still suffered trauma.
For most a garden is just that, garden but for one veteran suffering with PTSD her garden has been her saving grace.
“This is so therapeutic,” said Air Force veteran Isna T. Summerlin. “I've gone through a lot of darkness and I see me emerging just like these radishes” added Summerlin who says her battle with PTSD goes back decades.
“I’ve been fighting literally since 2001 to get compensation for the post traumatic stress disorder”, Summerlin added. read it here
Where are all the experts I learned from and taught?
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
May 7, 2020
Most of the experts I learned from have retired. Most of the people I taught over the years have gotten out of this work because it is so damn hard to do. Right now you need to remember why you got into this work in the first place.
For readers who do not know much about me, I used to be famous. I was know as Nam Guardian Angel going back to the early 90's online. That is what happens when people see what is happening before most people do. My work was sought out by military brass, psychologist, psychiatrists, mental health workers and educators. It astonished me how far the reach went, considering it was all word of mouth and intended to help veterans understand what PTSD so they would also know they could heal.
I am married to a Vietnam veteran with PTSD and survived traumatic events that could have killed me 10 times. I know what a flashback is, experienced nightmares, mood swings, anger, paranoia, depression, the list goes on. The biggest thing I want readers to get right now, is I also know what is on the flip side of the doom and gloom.
WE HAVE THE POWER TO OVERCOME
I wrote about living with PTSD back in 2002 in my first book, yet no matter how much I wrote, by then, the younger generation wasn't getting the message. In 2006, I started making videos. By 2008, I was Certified as a Chaplain with the IFOC and won an award for PTSD I Grieve. It was intended for members of the National Guard, but the IFOC was using it to help police officers and firefighters.
In 2007, I started this site and it has been read all over the world.
Why am I telling you all this? So that you take what I am saying seriously.
The parade passed me by many years ago, but considering it started in 1982...it was a long time coming, I have been just doing my work and stopped competing with the influx of people getting into this for the wrong reasons and getting in the way. They left no room for me and I had no tolerance for them.
Lately I have been feeling really down about what has been going on with COVID-19 and our lives turned upside down. I have been searching for signs of hope that the power of trauma had not increased because educators mobilized to do crisis intervention. That search ended this morning when I read an article by an ER Doctor.
"The unfortunate truth is that the United States has never adequately provided treatment for mental and emotional health challenges, such as PTSD, for brave citizens who put their country before themselves. As we begin to imagine a post-Covid-19 America, we must do better by all of our veterans, including the hundreds of thousands of health care workers who have borne the trauma of this pandemic. That starts by destigmatizing mental health issues and making it easier for physicians, nurses and others to seek out the resources they need." Tsion Firew
Why am I still reading things like this? What hasn't the mental health community learned from the lessons people like me have been sharing for decades? Is it because they stopped looking or they stopped thinking?
I am wondering where the hell all the experts are? Where are you hiding? Did the parade push you out of the way too? Time to stop resting and get back into action because too many people need your expertise right now.
I don't do it for money and safe bet, you didn't either. It is a safer bet that you are grieving as much as I am for all the suffering going on right now.
You may believe that you will not be able to reach enough to make a difference. Is one enough for you? Do you remember what it felt like to change a life for the better? To be able to send them away knowing they will be happier ever after because of what you did for their sake?
"Whoever changes one life, changes the whole world.”
Read what the Doctor wrote and know that you have the power to make the difference right now before it is too late to wish you had done something when you had the chance!
Emergency doctor: We need help before it's too late
KITV 4 News
Opinion by Tsion Firew
Wednesday, May 6th 2020
Opinion by Tsion Firew Last weekend, I was on CNN discussing the importance of supporting the mental and emotional health of medical professionals. I likened this pandemic to an invisible bomb going off in our emergency...
Last weekend, I was on CNN discussing the importance of supporting the mental and emotional health of medical professionals. I likened this pandemic to an invisible bomb going off in our emergency departments.
Twenty-four hours later, I learned about the death of my colleague, Dr. Lorna Breen. A day later, I learned from media reports that she had died by suicide. It was a one-two punch, like she died twice.
Lorna had survived Covid-19 earlier this month. As her physical symptoms got better, the mental toll of the pandemic continued to get worse.
And as I mourned, I reflected.
The world is hailing medical professionals as heroes, and don't get me wrong: The public praise has been a welcome shift. Our jobs were harrowing long before this crisis and will remain so long after we return to some semblance of normalcy. I am grateful for the acknowledgment.
Heed our call. The front line of this pandemic needs mental health resources and emotional support to process the destruction we cannot prevent, we cannot fix. The next wave is coming. We need help before it's too late for more of us. read it here
Michigan clinicians offer mental health resources to coronavirus frontline workers
Click Detroit
Cassidy Johncox, Web Producer
Sarah Parlette, Associated Producer
Published: April 18, 2020
Clinicians from Michigan are joining forces to help individuals through these crises, especially those who are still working every day during the pandemic.
Mental health professionals in Michigan are coming together to provide support and resources to frontline workers amid the escalating coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The pandemic is negatively affecting the mental health of most, according to behavioral science experts.
Long-term health effects will likely ripple across all age groups, including sleep disturbance, hypervigilance, PTSD, substance abuse, relapse and suicides, experts said. The pandemic’s impact on mental health could result in a 10-20% increase in demand for mental health services, according to officials.
Clinicians from Michigan are joining forces to help individuals through these crises, especially those who are still working every day during the pandemic.
MI Frontline Support (MIFS) is a new initiative organized by local clinicians to provide crisis- and coping-related resources to frontline workers in the state. MIFS creators have a loose definition of “frontline workers”, which includes health care workers and first responders as well as those working in grocery stores, delivery and mail services, the media and more. read it here
After I recorded this video I was thinking about all the others who are healers and protectors in isolation right now because they were exposed to COVID-19 on the job, or prevented from doing their work for other reasons. It hits us even harder because our mission on this earth is to help other people. When we cannot do it, it crushes our soul.
What Getting Tested for COVID-19 Was Like as a Trauma Survivor
The Mighty
Sophie Peterson
March 17, 2020
As the public falls into fear, check in on your friends and family who have chronic or preexisting conditions. Not only can they get sick faster, but this is an especially scary time for them. Flashbacks, sense memories and panic attacks has my PTSD beating me to a pulp.
I’m writing this from my hospital bed, on day three under quarantine while we wait for the coronavirus (COVID-19) results to come back. The coronavirus is a new-to-humans viral strain in the coronavirus family that affects the lungs and respiratory system. I’d be lying if I said I’m not scared, and that my post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) isn’t spinning out of control.
On Thursday evening, I began to show symptoms of the virus. I called my clinic asking what the protocol is and was directed to a website that allows doctors to make video calls. I spent an hour trying to figure it out, only to give up in a fit of frustration, fevers and a cough. I was ultimately told to go to the emergency room.
My mother, being the mother she always is, drove me to the ER and helped me advocate for myself. And most importantly, she knowingly possibly contaminated herself for me.
Originally, I didn’t meet the requirements of being tested because I didn’t have contact with a positively tested person or have travelled to an outbreak country. This is despite having moderate asthma and having traveled to Chicago, where there is known community spread. (That’s where it spreads in the community but there is no direct line or knowledge of contact to the newly infected person.) As all of these tests came back negative, and since I was presenting quite sick they decided to test me. (It takes 24 to 48 hours? This is the most ridiculous setup in the world.)
Anger to those who think spreading misinformation is OK. Health care professionals are putting their lives on the line and they are not there to dampen irrational fears that are created by misinformation. If science doesn’t support your hypothesis then it isn’t science. Misinformation and not following quarantine protocol is what will take the death toll from 3% to something much worse. read it here
Mental health crisis: We must speak with one powerful voice in 2020
The Hill
BY FORMER REP. PATRICK KENNEDY (D-R.I.), OPINION CONTRIBUTOR
01/13/20
The systemic change we need to address our nation’s mental health crisis truly will not happen unless families, advocates, providers, and policymakers unite in support of a roadmap for change — and demand action from elected leaders.
For many, the start of a new year represents a clean slate — a chance to take stock of what truly matters in life and course correct in search of a better path.
Human resiliency is a powerful thing. Mental health and addiction professionals often say it’s why they do what they do. People can recover from their challenges and go on to lead productive, meaningful lives.
But resiliency alone is not enough for the one in six Californians who have a mental health condition or the 2.7 million Californians who meet the criteria for a substance use disorder. Access to quality, evidence-based care, and community support are equally as important.
However, as Californians know all too well, such care and support are not always easy to come by, often leading to tragic outcomes. Overdose deaths from opioids and methamphetamines continue to devastate families across the state. Suicide is now the second leading cause of death for Californians age 18-34.
Jails and prisons serve as de facto “treatment centers” for some, and homelessness has hit epidemic proportions, primarily due to a combination of untreated mental health and substance use disorders and California’s affordable housing crisis.
Many who seek care using private health insurance face enormous roadblocks. A recent report by the actuarial firm Milliman found huge out-of-network utilization disparities between mental health/addiction and medical/surgical care for inpatient facilities, outpatient facilities, and office visits.
This means insured individuals are paying more out-of-pocket for mental health/addiction care than they are for medical care — mostly because health plans continue to reimburse mental health/addiction providers far less than their primary care/specialist counterparts, causing those providers to stop accepting insurance altogether. read it here
Take the time to add your voice to this fight! I did! Go to Mental Health For US
Before you wonder, that is not me in the picture. Erica is my favorite boss from Fidelity National Title, when I lived in Florida. She surprised me by taking my T-shirt to Peru and climbed to the top of Machu Picchu wearing it. Erica is one of the most wonderful people you could ever meet. No matter what happens, she accepts what she cannot change while being determined to change what she can.
Most of us think that people like Erica are happy because they have been blessed with an easy life. We never seem to wonder why someone who is miserable became that way. We just assume they were born with a terrible attitude toward everyone else.
The truth is, no one is born miserable and very few actually are born blessed. What they become is determined by what they are willing to accept, as much as what they are willing to expect.
God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.
Reinhold Niebuhr
When you have PTSD, you have it because of something that happened to you. If what happened was because you decided to risk your life for the sake of someone else, the origins of that pull on your soul was based on having a courageous love.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:2
Most of the time, you had no control over any of it. What you do control is what you do as a survivor of it. Do you stay stuck as a victim of "it" or do you move forward as a survivor of it?
Isn't it time that someone reminded you of that choice you have? Isn't it time that you became less of a victim and more of a survivor? Why accept the limits others placed on themselves? Why not expect that you can live a happier life by breaking the boundaries you put
You control what came after "it" happened. You are the one who has the power to define your own future. The "it" that happened, or the many "its" lost because you lived, thus you became victorious. Why surrender to something that already lost?
Stop and think about what it took to walk away from "it" and notice the courage you had to move one foot in front of the other. Acknowledge what strength it took to utter the first words from a grateful voice instead of a bitter heart.
You can become "reasonably happy" in life, as long as you seek to change what you can about how you choose to live. That begins when you decide that you are done with being miserable and be willing to take the next step toward becoming hopeful.
Do not turn from God as if He is punishing you. He is the One who put it within you to cause you to be willing to serve others.
If He put the strength and courage within you to do your job, He also put what you need to heal from what that doing that job did to you. Trust in what you knew to be true before "it" happened, because it is all there. There is nothing that is, or has to be, lesser about you, other than your suffering. Time to become victim-less and more survivor. You can get up there from here, if you have the courage to try to change how you define yourself.
Retired CPD officer found dead in apparent suicide in Chatham
Chicago Sun Times By Luke Wilusz March 5, 2019
A retired Chicago police officer was found dead of an apparent suicide Monday evening in the Chatham neighborhood on the South Side.
The 61-year-old man was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest at 7:02 p.m. in his home in the 7900 block of South Michigan Avenue, according to Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
read more here
This is an article from another Officer's widow...think about it! #BreakTheSilentService and #TakeBackYourLife
Awash in Sorrow
What happens when all seems lost? What’s happening in your head can bring you down easier than a bad guy’s bullet. Officer.com JOHN WILLS MARCH 5, 2019
“When people kill themselves, they think they’re ending the pain, but all they’re doing is passing it on to those they leave behind.” Jeannette Walls
“My husband, David Colegrove, was a law enforcement officer for 30 years. He killed himself in 2014, less than three months after he retired,” said Kim Colegrove. “Since his suicide, I’ve learned a lot about trauma, post-traumatic stress, secondary trauma, hypervigilance, and the common predictors of suicide among law enforcement professionals and other first responders.” Kim’s tragic loss compelled her to create The Pause First Project, dedicated to bringing mindfulness practices to first responders.
As of this writing, February 2019, law enforcement has already lost 33 officers to suicides. That’s an astounding number, particularly when compared with total line of duty deaths thus far—17. Why the disparity, why are we killing ourselves in such high numbers? Much of the reason stems from what cops see every day. Horrible things, man’s inhumanity to others. Beatings, shootings, murders, they all cause indelible memories that can haunt many officers for the rest of their lives. The resulting trauma affects not only the victims of crime, but also the witnesses and those who investigate the incidents. read more here
She was sure she was about to die at Navy Yard, and five years later has built a new life Washington Post Anne E Marimow September 15, 2018
The anniversary comes as a group of victims’ relatives and survivors, including Stultz, have reached settlements in their negligence lawsuits against two private companies that employed Alexis, who was fatally shot by police who flooded the scene. The agreements close a chapter for the 15 plaintiffs who went to federal court in Washington seeking a combined $189 million in claimed damages.
Lori Lee Stultz no longer works at the Washington Navy Yard, where she escaped a mass shooting in 2013. She now runs a linens company that she credits with helping her heal. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
When the first shots were fired inside Building 197 at the Washington Navy Yard, Lori Lee Stultz huddled beneath a desk with two colleagues, gripping their hands and trying to stay quiet, certain they’d be killed.
All around her, glass shattered, fire alarms blared, desk phones rang incessantly, and a colleague screamed, “Help me!”
The shooter, Aaron Alexis, gunned down 12 Navy civilian personnel and contractors that morning in September 2013, including too many of Stultz’s friends and colleagues from 15 years at the Navy Yard.
Stultz, of Arlington, and about 20 other survivors from Building 197 plan to gather Sunday to mark five years since the mass shooting.
“You become part of a strange community that no one else understands. We’re not crying; we’re just remembering,” Stultz said. “You can’t really talk to other people about it. It’s just upsetting, and they don’t know what to say.” read more here
Mel B to enter rehab after PTSD diagnosis: ‘I am at a crisis point’ Metro UK Rebecca Lewis Sunday 26 Aug 2018
‘I am fully aware I am at a crisis point. No-one knows myself better than I do. But I am dealing with it. I love my three girls more than life itself. I have also made the decision to go into a proper therapy programme in the next few weeks, but it has to be in the UK because I am very, very British and I know that will work best for me.’ ‘I am still struggling,’ she continued, ‘but if I can shine a light on the issue of pain, PTSD and the things men and women do to mask it, I will do. I am speaking about this because this is a huge issue for so many people.
Mel has confirmed she plans to enter rehab (Picture: Rex)
Mel B is preparing to check into rehab after being diagnosed with PTSD and reaching what she calls ‘crisis point’. The former Spice Girl and mother of three is planning to enter a British facility in the next few weeks to get help after being diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and admitting to drinking heavily following a turbulent period in her life, including the death of her father Martin Brown and her split and subsequent messy divorce battle from Stephen Belafonte, who she accused of being abusive. ‘The past six months have been incredibly difficult for me,’ she said.
read more here
Police officer's family speaks out about PTSD The Nugget By JENNIFER HAMILTON-MCCHARLES July 29, 2018
Murray Northrup died last year.
Osprey Links Golf Course was Northrup's second home so it was only fitting his family, friends and emergency services paid tribute to the veteran police officer, who served more than 37 years with the Ontario Provincial Police and North Bay Police Service.
Murray Northrup's wife Diane Northrup, his daughter Krista Northrup and Police Chief Shawn Devine of the North Bay Police Service organized and attended the 1st annual Murray Northrup Golf Tournament to recognize Post Traumatic Stress Disorder held at Osprey Golf Course Saturday. Northrup who served as a police officer for more than 37 years committed suicide July 19, 2017 after suffering from PTSD.
“Post traumatic stress is a silent killer. Murray suffered for years,” his wife, Diane, said Saturday.
“He lived to be a cop and died because he was a cop.”
Before his death, Northrup said her husband left several letters to his family and first responders who would be called to the scene the day he died July 19, 2017.
“The letter he sent to his lawyers, about 10 pages in length, detailed all the incidents that have stayed with him. Everything was in there – the dates, times and names over the past 30 years.”
Northrup said her husband saw his first fatal when he was five and that stayed with him for his entire life.
“Murray's dad told him to stay in the car, but he didn't and saw the women who died. He still remembered the dress she was wearing.”
Murray Northrup also made a request in his final letter to his loved ones to do something to help heroes suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.
His daughter, Krista, promised she will do whatever she can to answer her dad's request.
The family organized a tribute to Northrup in a way he would appreciate – a golf tournament. read more here
Lancaster police officer's death ruled a suicide; first responders urged to get help York Daily Record Geoff Morrow Published June 27, 2018
Lancaster City Police on Wednesday announced that the recent death of Patrol Officer Mark Gehron, 43, was a suicide.
Gehron, a 19-year veteran of the police bureau, died Saturday, June 23.
He was previously a volunteer firefighter and, as a police officer, received several awards and commendations. Gehron was also the father to sons Chris and Carter, both of Lancaster.
In its release, the Lancaster Police Department said the law enforcement community experiences an average of 130 deaths a year related to officers in crisis.
read more here
When my father needed help, no one was there Sydney Morning Herald By Cidney Jenkins 27 May 2018
Many of us assume that the most traumatic part of a paramedic’s job is what they find when they respond to an emergency call. What many of us failure to consider is what happens to paramedics once they leave a scene.
For many of us, an experience requiring an ambulance is often limited to a single unfortunate event. An event that will never be repeated or forgotten. For our paramedics, this is their daily life.
My father, Tony Jenkins, was one of them. As I sat at my laptop a few weeks ago, fumbling around with words for my father’s eulogy, I was left questioning how it had come to this.
How could a man, who preached about his good fortune, his loving family and his remarkably happy life, be driven to take his own life, without warning? How could a husband, father and friend who had never spent a day in bed leave the world that he had so openly enjoyed and loved every single day?
But the final hours of my father’s life were spent behind closed doors with incompetent and insensitive managers, whose response to my father’s plea for help was to drive him back to his station, where he was left to walk off into the street, by himself. The next morning, police and ambulance workers came to our house, to tell us they had found his body. read more here
Saturday, April 28, 2018
Front-line stress and trauma: are Island first responders prepared? Oak Bay News KATHERINE ENGQVIST Apr. 28, 2018
“The one thing we’re not prepared for is how this job will effect you,” Savoia said, emphasizing a need for more pre-incident training. “PTSD strikes when you least expect it.”
Emergency responders carry a man to an awaiting ambulance after being extricated from his pickup truck, one of two vehicles involved in a collision along Highway 97B in Salmon Arm (Lachlan Labere/Salmon Arm Observer file)
Big Read: Industry leaders call for more pre-incident training
They’re first on scene and there when you need them.
But for public service members who dedicate themselves to helping others, sometimes the biggest challenge is taking care of themselves.
It’s a lesson Michael Swainson learned the hard way.
“A lot of people suffer in silence … First responders put everybody else first – that’s the nature of the beast – we’re really shitty at taking care of ourselves.”
Swainson worked in the Yukon for 25 years as a paramedic, emergency medical services supervisor and dispatch supervisor, firefighter, professional ski patroller, and a disaster trainer and evaluator. As a paramedic alone, he went on roughly 6,000 calls in Whitehorse. For that area it was normal. If he had been working somewhere like Vancouver, he said that number could have easily been double.
“For first responders it’s a conveyor belt of trauma, eventually you run out of coping strategies,” Swainson said. read more here
AP
FILE - In this Nov. 26, 2017 file photo, Carlos Arredondo, center, gives a thumbs-up before participating in a Salute to Service military appreciation campaign before an NFL football game between the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins in Foxborough, Mass. Arredondo helped save the life of marathon spectator Jeff Bauman after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. He now volunteers with the Red Cross, and his family foundation works to prevent military-related suicides. He is preparing to run in his first Boston Marathon on April 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)
THEN: Millions know him as the man in the cowboy hat who helped save the life of marathon spectator Jeff Bauman, the double amputee played by Jake Gyllenhaal in the 2017 movie "Stronger." Arredondo had become an anti-war activist and suicide prevention advocate after one son was fatally shot by a sniper in Iraq and another killed himself, and he was at the finish line handing out American flags when the bombs went off. Instantly, Arredondo became a symbol of courage.
NOW: Arredondo continues to do whatever he can to help others. He volunteers with the Red Cross, and his Arredondo Family Foundation works to prevent military-related suicides and hand out Thanksgiving turkeys to veterans and their families. He's now preparing to run his first Boston Marathon.
In his own words: "What many people don't realize is that first responders also go through some of the same trauma as survivors. I've been dealing with some issues, but that doesn't slow me down. It's been an amazing journey." read other inspirational stories of survivors here
Gov. Scott in Tampa today to sign first responder bill WFLA News Avery Cotton March 27, 2018 TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) - Governor Rick Scott will be in Tampa today to sign a bill into law that aims to help Florida first responders who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Florida lawmakers passed the bill extending workers' compensation benefits for first responders to include treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. The Florida House of Representatives voted unanimously for the legislation (SB 376) . Lawmakers have heard stories of firefighters and police officers who have taken their own lives or can no longer do their jobs because of repeated exposure to horrific deaths and tragedies, but they don't have benefits that include treatment for PTSD. Right now workers' compensation benefits only cover physical injuries.
read more here
“We have to help them continue on:” Local program helps first responders cope with PTSD CBS 58 News By: Whitney Martin Posted: Feb 16, 2018
The internal pain, so deep emergency responders are ten times more likely to commit suicide, according to the journal of Emergency Medical Services. Twenty percent of firefighters are paramedics also have PTSD.
WISCONSIN (CBS 58) – A Wisconsin agency says emergency responders are committing suicide every 40 hours. Now, there’s a push in Madison to help save the people who live to save us.
A new law would expand the state’s workers’ compensation law allowing responders to take time away for PTSD, even if they weren’t physically injured during the traumatic experience.
CBS 58 Morning Anchor Whitney Martin explains the struggle that so many face.
Medals and awards line John Krahn’s walls. From the outside, he’s a hero. Inside, he’s fighting a battle only a few understand.
“I don’t dream normal dreams anymore. I haven’t since the accident,” said Krahn.
Those nightmares take the former Elm Grove Police Officer to the scene of a 2009 train accident where he was thrown into the air after attempting to save a mother and her son from a van stuck on the tracks.
While both made it out alive, Krahn still lives with the physical and emotional pain from that day, the day he almost died.
“I feel guilty that my wife has to deal with this,” Krahn says.
Krahn is referring to his post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD that can affect first responders causing flashbacks, anxiety, and insomnia, making some days feel like survival mode. read more here
Sanford police seek help finding missing man, 42 Police searching for Alejandro Moran Click Orlando February 02, 2018
SANFORD, Fla. - Sanford police are asking for the public's help in finding a missing 42-year-old man.
Police said they responded around 2:33 a.m. Friday to the Slumberland Motel in the 2600 block of South Orlando Drive regarding a missing/suicidal person identified as Alejandro Moran.
Moran then left the area on foot prior to law enforcement arrival. Police said Moran has only been in Sanford for two months and is not familiar with the area.
Moran suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression, police said. read more here
Will Florida do the right thing for our First Responders...finally? If we do not acknowledge that this is a wound that comes with the job, then our veterans will think Florida feels the same way about them. It is a simple question. Do we value those who risk their lives for us or not?
With emotion, legislators and relatives of late firefighters push PTSD bill
Florida Politics
Danny Mculiffe
January 16, 2018
“The numbers don’t lie,” JimmyPatronis, Florida’s chief financial officer and state marshal said. He cited research from 2015 that showed 15 percent of firefighters had made at least one attempt at suicide during their career, while 46 percent of firefighters had thought about taking their lives.
“Recovering a toddler’s body from the river, pulling bodies from a car that ended up in a canal and carrying a decapitated teen’s body across the sand who was the victim of a shark attack would certainly take a toll on anyone,” LeslieDangerfield said behind teary eyes.
She was describing the atrocities her husband, Indian River Battalion Chief DavidDangerfield, had witnessed before he ultimately took his life. Leading up to her husband’s suicide, Leslie Dangerfield said his behavior had changed. He had succumbed to the “beast of PTSD,” or post-traumatic stress disorder.
Leslie Dangerfield told her story during a press conference Wednesday aiming to alert the public on bills in the Legislature this year that would provide workers’ compensation for first responders suffering from PTSD.
Currently, workers’ compensation laws do not provide for benefits in cases of first responders suffering from mental health-related injuries, unless they are accompanied by physical injury.
The issue has permeated the judiciary branch.
Compensation Judge NealPitts denied workers’ compensation for former Orlando Police officer Gerry Realin last week. Realin responded to the Pulse nightclubshooting, which left 49 massacred and 58 others injured in June 2016. read more here
Ontario wants to extend PTSD coverage to frontline nurses
Ottowa Citizen
Joanne Laucius
December 15, 2017
The Ontario Ministry of Labour wants to extend “presumptive” post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) legislation to include up to 140,000 frontline nurses.
If the proposal becomes law, it will cover the nurses for “stress and impairment to functioning,” including painful flashbacks, nightmares, outbursts and thoughts of suicide and guilt or sadness following a traumatic event.
There are up to 140,000 frontline nurses in Ontario. SUNMEDIA
“With the new proposed presumption, once a frontline nurse is diagnosed with PTSD by either a psychiatrist or a psychologist, the claims process for WSIB (Workplace Safety and Insurance Board) benefits will be expedited, and nurses will not be required to prove a causal link between PTSD and a workplace event,” said the ministry in a statement.
In April 2016, Ontario passed the Supporting Ontario’s First Responders Act, creating the “presumption” that PTSD diagnosed in first responders was work-related — so covered workers do not have to prove the link between their work and PTSD.
The act covered about 73,000 first responders in the province, including police officers, firefighters, paramedics, corrections workers and dispatchers. But nurses were not included, sparking an outcry from the group.
Woman saved from domestic violence by Cpl. Trevor O'Keefe helps raise thousands in his memory
CBC News
October 11, 2017
O'Keefe took his own life last month after a lengthy battle with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In the weeks since his death, other officers suffering from PTSD have spoken up about the battle they endure outside of work hours.
Family members of RCMP Cpl. Trevor O'Keefe were in Clarenville on Wednesday for a walk to raise money for the Canadian Mental Health Association. (Stephanie Marsden)
Fourteen years after RCMP Cpl.Trevor O'Keefe helped her escape domestic violence with her three children, Donna Hancock wanted to help his family.
On Wednesday, hundreds of people assembled in the streets in Clarenville to walk for the beloved officer, who took his own life Sept. 11.
Together, they raised $8,326 for the Canadian Mental Health Association.
"Trevor helped me out over a decade ago when I had a very difficult time in my life," Hancock told CBC's St. John's Morning Show. "I left a very abusive relationship with three small kids. Walking back and forth to work, he always checked in on me."
The walkers were led by a police car, fire truck and ambulance. Several police officers took part in the walk, including coworkers of O'Keefe.
Members of the O'Keefe family — including his parents, Pierre and Biddy, and children, Liam and Melissa — were in attendance.
