Laurie Maher knows all too well how physically and mentally challenging her job can be.
She’s worked as a primary care paramedic for 34 years. Injuries, trauma, and death are a part of her job, but it takes a toll.
"You come every day, you don't know what you're going to get. There’s a lot of emotion that goes on with every call, even the simple calls,” she says. "Even after 30 some odd years you can still go home and be on edge. It's good to know you have people around you."
County of Simcoe Paramedic Services recognizes the stress its employees are under on a constant basis. The service gives its front-line responders a mandatory course called “Road to Mental Readiness.”
"Which is kind of a self-awareness resilience building program for people to understand in more of a continuum of mental health and to recognize when they need a little help,” says Chief Andrew Robert.
There's even a chart of symptoms from green to red, showing them where they might fit in.
"This is about being human. These are humans. They can experience mental health issues like every other human and they can get them addressed like any other human."
All 320 front-line paramedics have taken the course and now the organization is working to create a peer support team.
It will be made up of paramedics nominated by their peers and trained by a clinical psychologist.
"This is what we do with other patients. Sometimes we forget about ourselves. We really need to focus on ourselves in order to be good for everyone else," says Maher.
It's all about starting a conversation and removing the stigma.
"The goal I think is to say ‘it's okay to have mental health issue. It's okay to talk about it. It's okay to go get help,’" says Robert.
