If you’re thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, the 988 Lifeline is confidentiential, free, and available for everyone in the US and Canada. Call or text 988 to contact a counselor, or visit the website to chat online.
PEER-SUPPORT
- Safe Call Now is staffed by public safety professionals and former law enforcement officers who provide assistance, resources and support for public safety professionals and their families. Call 206-459-3020.
- Next Rung offers free peer support via talk, text, social media messaging, email, Skype or FaceTime. If you are in immediate need of help, please text “SUPPORT” to 1-833-NXT-RUNG (698-7864).
- American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress offers online support groups for emergency responders and health care workers.
- Hope for Emergency Responders Organization (HERO) offers a warmline, peer support and other resources for first responders, their families and their friends.
- CopLine website and 1-800-267-5463 are a confidential, 24-hour law enforcement peer support hotline.
- Center for Firefighter Behavioral Health offers resources and peer support for the occupational stress faced by firefighters.
More Resources
- First Responder's Childrens Foundation - We support the children & families of our First Responder heroes who risk their lives every day in service to our communities.
- Boulder Crest Foundation - The Home of Posttraumatic Growth (PTG). The Boulder Crest Foundation offers transformative PTG programs, free of charge to members of the military, veterans, and first responder communities, and their families.
- The 2nd Alarm Project, which includes Florida’s 10-4 Center for Responder Resiliency, is a nonprofit organization established to offer comprehensive, evidence-based resiliency initiatives in our first responder communities.
- The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) offers a public safety professionals web page with information about challenges responders face and organizations providing peer support programs for responders. NAMI also provides a web page with stories and videos from frontline professionals.
- Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is a technique to help people assist those around them who are experiencing mental health or substance use-related crises. MHFA training may cost money to complete. Varieties are available specifically for public safety workers and fire and EMS personnel.
- The Center for Firefighter Behavioral Health offers resources including Firefighters Helping Firefighters, a collection of online videos about managing stress in the fire service. While not a peer support program, Firefighters Helping Firefighters offers some of the benefits of peer support, including acknowledgement of stressors in the fire service, reduction of stigma, and ideas for coping by firefighters for firefighters.
- The International Association of Chiefs of Police has developed peer support guidelines.
- All Clear Foundation offers several resources for responders, including Responder Rel8, a free and confidential mobile app that allows responders to communicate with one another and provide and receive support from peers.
Online Courses
- First ResponseThis 1-hour online training course was developed to help first responders cope with the stressors involved in the opioid crisis. The course is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Pre-hospital Continuing Education (CAPCE), which reviews and approves trainings for continuing education credit for emergency medical services (EMS) professionals.
- Creating Safe ScenesThis 1.5-hour online course, also accredited by CAPCE, helps first responders use safe, positive approaches to assist individuals in crises related to mental illness or substance use disorders.
- Shield of ResilienceThis 1-hour online course provides law enforcement officers with a foundational skill set to better understand and address stressors that are unique to law enforcement.
- Service to SelfSpecifically for fire and EMS personnel, this hour-long online course (CAPCE-accredited) covers occupational stressors, mental health and substance use issues that are more common among fire and EMS personnel, individual and organizational resilience, and stress management.