#36 Eastern Oregon Peer Team: Taking Care of Our People After a Critical Incident

The Center Collaborative: Creative Solutions in Behavioral Health and Criminal Justice

We have reached the end of Season 3 on the Center Collaborative. Closing out this year, we’re bringing you a fascinating discussion about how professional peers are making a difference in first responder culture in Eastern Oregon.

Peer Coordinator Sergeant Tyler Reddington, Retired Firefighter and Department Chaplain Kevin Coleman, and Dr. Lindsay Tice PsyD, Clinical Psychologist, discuss:

• Fire and police often experience the same traumatic events, which is why it made sense to collaborate on the peer program.

• Undoing the old thought-process that traumatic events don’t affect all aspects of a first responders well-being.

• After a series of traumatic events in the community had a clearly negative impact on the first responders, the need for more support was recognized.

• First responders need a place to unload traumatic stress that doesn’t feel like they’re placing an undue burden on family and friends.

• Trauma isn’t always a big event - it can be a result of the accumulation of traumatic stress from any area of a person’s life over time.

• Peers are a sounding board, encouraging ongoing communication about stresses whether they’re related to the job or not.

• If a person feels they would like more skills or help with processing trauma, they can be referred to Dr. Tice, who is culturally competent with first responder culture.

• The Eastern Oregon Peer Team is adding peers to the team who have first-hand knowledge of an array of life experiences, for example, divorce.

• They are also adding peers from additional agencies in the area to continue building cross-agency relationships.

• The beginning shift in the resistance of the first responder culture to seeking support, as there is a level of understanding from peers. Seeking help and talking about stresses has been normalized during the culture shift.

• Peers are required to complete a 3 day training to be certified, and also must sign a confidentiality agreement.

• The peer team is working on relationship building with partner agencies by doing presentations, and hosting department breakfasts.

• They are working to implement a call-tree to be dispatched out to trauma scenes in order to have a timely response to critical incidents to provide support to first-responders.

• After experiencing a significant trauma incident, first responders should be treated as though they’ve been injured, and be allowed time to process the incident before going out on more calls. Not being allowed time to process critical incidents can result in reduced job performance, increased stress, and potentially, the development of PTSD.

• A peer is a person who has had a similar experience who you can talk to about your experiences. Peers also have access to other resources, such as Dr. Tice, if a person needs them.

For more information about the intersection between criminal justice and behavioral health in Oregon, please reach out to us through our website at http://www.ocbhji.org/podcast and Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/OCBHJI/. We’d love to hear from you.

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