Dispatch Insanity

The breaking point… how do you know when you’ve reached it, when you’ve passed it?

There is a stigma in public safety when it comes to mental health. There has been great strides in breaking the stigmas. Even with everything that is currently being done, it seems that a there are still issues that are falling through the cracks. It’s generally accepted that police officers, paramedics, fire personnel, nurses and even dispatchers can suffer from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It appears that it is more “acceptable” for the people that are hands on with the tragedy to have lingering side effects. I have heard several speakers , and supervisors, say that in order to stop the dispatcher “burn out” or any other mental problem is to give them closure. By simply telling them the outcome of a call will take away the pain. While this is a small step, this doesn’t fix it. There are dispatchers who always get told the outcome of the calls that are bad, good, boring etc. Those individuals are lucky. But simply knowing how a call ended or what happened after they hung up the phone does not erase the things that are heard.

I don’t like being the person that brings up a problem and doesn’t offer a solution. So I’ll offer suggestions. Dispatchers need someone to talk to. Chaplains and counselors are great but they don’t live in our world. They don’t understand and no amount of education can put them into our worlds. The stigma needs to be gone, easier said than done which has been proven over and over. Dispatchers need to feel comfortable talking to their coworkers about how they are handling day to day life, without the fear of judgement for seeing a counselor and/or being on medication. Supervisors need to be available. Not with responses of “so and so is available for you to talk to” this goes back to the first point. But there are times when coworkers see you struggling before you see it. A supervisor should be someone that can be gone to without judgement when you are concerned for a coworker or for yourself. Medication is not always the enemy. There may be times in a dispatch career when you or someone you work with needs to be put on medication. For anxiety, depression, PTSD, whatever. It should be as easy to talk about like it’s easy to talk about being put on blood pressure medication.