By: Robert Avsec, Executive Fire Officer WOW! I’m so excited to have been a guest of Jerry Lund for his podcast, Enduring the Badge. I had the opportunity to have a great conversation with Jerry regarding firefighter behavioral health and what it will take to “bridge the gap between professional psychology and the fire service.” As many of you know, ...
Read More »Mental Health
Why join the Fire Service Psychology Association if you’re in the fire service?
I've been a fire service member of the Fire Service Psychology Association (FSPA) since 2018 and it's been an informative, educational, and fulfilling experience seeing how fire service leaders and psychologist and other mental health clinicians are working to "build a bridge between professional psychology and the fire service." However, in the five-plus years I've been a member of FSPA I never really gave serious thought to "Why did I join FSPA?"
Read More »What’s in Your Fire Department’s Behavioral Health “Toolbox?”
Fire departments that are looking to provide an effective behavioral health program for their members would do well to model the approach that the fire service has taken with its tiered response to hazardous materials incidents. They would further serve the best interests of their firefighters by collaborating with mental health clinicians, preferably those at the Specialist Level, just as they would if developing their own hazardous materials response team.
Read More »Researchers should not be developing mental health care strategies for firefighters
And that's why we need to have a field of Fire Psychology that's been developed using fire service leaders and mental health practitioners of all "shapes and sizes" if we are to develop and implement better mental health programs for fire service personnel.
Read More »Emotional Hygiene: What you don’t know
Why do we pay so much attention to our physical health yet almost ignore our emotional health? Check out this post to learn why and how to fix that.
Read More »Donate to Help Make the 6th Annual Conference of the Fire Service Psychology Association a Success!
You can help support the 6th Annual Conference of the Fire Service Psychological Association with your tax-deductible donation. Help support improving mental health services for firefighters!
Read More »Firefighter Suicide: We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know
We must do better in understanding what causes a firefighter to take their own life, and one place we need to start is by gaining a true picture of what leads a firefighter to take their own life. We can only gain that true picture by conducting research in the form of psychological autopsies, that is, using the proven tools and methodologies of psychology.
Read More »Be a Part of the 6th Annual Fire Service Psychological Association Conference!
At the Fire Service Psychology Association (FSPA) we're working to "bridge the gap between professional psychology and the fire service." What is that gap? Good question, and here's the answer.
Read More »Do firefighters write policies and procedures in your fire department?
Why haven't the IAFF and IAFC included professional psychologists who are trained and experienced in police and public safety psychology in developing mental health and wellness standards for the fire service?
Read More »How to declare and respond to an off-duty mayday
The driving force behind the Firefighter Health and Wellness Conference is Brothers Helping Brothers (BHB), a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, founded in 2014. Since its launch, BHB has given out 14 grants to advance its mission of “Helping Small and Rural America, One Fire Department at a Time,” to fire departments in Ohio and surrounding states. The genesis for the conference, according to Nick Magoteaux, founder and co-director of BHB, came in early 2018: “I was doing a fire EMS conference then, and I saw that there was a lot of interest in firefighter cancer. But not much on mental health. So, I got to thinking that mental health was a topic that needed attention.”
Read More »