The Psychological and Physical Impact of Trauma of First Responders

The Psychological and Physical Impact of Trauma of First Responders
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Abstract.
The U.S. has become aware of veterans that return home with post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) and are in dire need of psychological and physical help and training. The public is mindful of the disruptions brought by events and critical incidents that the veterans face and are therefore very supportive and very resourceful in their recovery. However, the public is unaware of the other group of people that exist and serve their community locally and succumb to PTSD and psychological and physical trauma. These are the first responders, who run towards the critical incident whereas everyone else is running in the opposite direction. According to Flannery (2015),the first responders to critical incidents have a 5.9-22% chance of developing PTSD and psychological trauma whose impacts are behavioural, mental and physical. This is a wide population that is at risk, given the rates of critical incidents happening in the community every day. There is need for first responders to get treatment, yet research focus has been very limited in their favour
Garner et al alludes that trauma does not only affect the traditional survivors but also the first responders who go through occupational illnesses and injuries and they then develop depression and mental and traumatic disorders (Garner et al, 2016). This paper will look at a case study of a firefighter that would then reveal the connection between the first responders and trauma affiliations and later on discuss the interventions to be taken and an appreciation of the healing of trauma victims.
Introduction
First responders
First responders are an inclusive group of both military and medical personnel plus volunteers of disaster rescue, police officers and firefighters. These people experience high levels of trauma individually and as a group. The first responders of critical incidents from Hurricane Katrina, 9/11 and Wen Chuan earthquakes, have been studied in order to come up with treatments for the first responder’s specific mental health conditions. First responders are inclined to PTSD, depression, and acute stress disorders with reference to particular variables like trauma preparation, age, self-efficacy, previous experiences, social support, and substance abuse (Garner et al, 2016).
The first responders have their mental needs unknown to the public. They are a focused group of people, and differential women and men that do not complain, as it is part of their job. Their idea of seeking counselling for their mental health problems that arise from the critical incident they respond to is not thought about. They are very busy people and they need to respond to call after call and ensure that they can save lives of the people in their community, hence, they hardly get time for counselling. Unfortunately, since they do not get treatments from the clinical and specified teams that could help them manage their trauma, they tend to medicate themselves after a traumatic incident.Therefore, they do not reach out for help. The perception of first responders on the media is not focused on the work they do but rather ...