First Responder Trauma Services is dedicated to supporting the lives of professional and volunteer first responders and frontline workers, including firefighters, law enforcement officers, EMS pre-hospital transport personnel, emergency room staff, physicians, 911 operators, criminal justice service workers, park rangers, judicial district attorney’s, coroners and their collective family members, by developing honest and empathetic peer support relationships across all the agencies we serve.  

 

We strongly believe in the importance and efficacy of community outreach and have created a regional peer support team model, whereby active first responders receive specialized training to respond to fellow first responders and first response agencies in crisis everyday, around the clock, all year round.  

 

But Why Now??? We cannot do this alone. We need your help for those that respond to your need when you are having the worst day of your life! We understand that this need for a safe space for all first responders/frontline workers is only growing and so is the increase of trauma with the outcome of suicide.

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Many First Responders and Frontline Workers struggle with addiction, PTSI/D, and other medical and behavioral health issues. The micro and macro traumas they experience accumulate until the emotional and physical stress can no longer be tolerated. Traditional counseling can be challenging for both non-culturally competent clinicians and responders, as both are confronted with navigating the
minefields of calls and tragic experiences, typically causing vicarious trauma to the counselor and disappointment to the responder if their issues are not quickly resolved.
 

At FRTS "We get it because we have been there and done that," with over 500 collective years of frontline response experience. FRTS clinicians "know how it feels, because we have felt the same way," and we can show responders what we have found to successfully maneuver through similar minefields and live an enriched life. With burnout, addiction, divorce and suicide at all time highs, we as helpers and community members need to provide more than empathy and understanding. We must ACT to fix the problems by leaning into them and creating better outcomes, not only for First Responders and Frontline Workers, but also better interactions and results for the public they serve.