Homework Question on Health Care Of First Responders
- Describe why first responders (e.g., police, fire, EMS, etc.) often do not seek mental health care.
- What can be done to change this tendency?
Homework Answer on Health Care Of First Responders
First responders (for instance, police, fire and EMS) often do not seek mental health care (Benedek, Fullerton, & Ursano, 2007). However, for the first responders, upholding optimal mental wellness is a crucial element of staying active and successful on the profession, in addition to at home. Frequent exposure to distress, life-threatening conditions and physical stress of working for many hours on inadequate sleep could negatively influence overall psychological well-being, raising the vulnerability and chances of alcoholism and drug abuse amid first responders.
For the first responders and the members of their families, the stigmatization against mental health problems poses a great hindrance to seeking treatment. Desiring not to point out to their struggle and choosing instead to concentrate on the job, the majority of the first responders do not want to admit that they could be requiring mental health care or that their suffering could be impeding the capacity to operate mentally or/and physically effectively.
Attributable to the environments in which they operate, first responders have to continually keep observing and seeking the toning down of the nastiest of human encounters (Davis, Ruiz, Glynn, Picariello, & Walley, 2014). For instance, the destructive impacts of fire, the psychological and physical effects of accidents and criminal actions, the menace of personal attacks, frequent distress and incapacity to help all the people that they desire assisting result in enhanced mental health problems for the first responders.