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Mental Health & First Responders
Dr. Steven Bond shares his insight on mental health and first responders.
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Steven Bond, MD
Steven Bond, MD is the Director of Behavioral Medicine. Transcription:
Mental Health & First Responders
Riverside Healthcare puts the health and wellness information you need well within reach.
Liz Healy: Hello, listeners. And thanks for tuning into Well Within Reach podcast brought to you by Riverside Healthcare. I'm your host, Liz Healy. And joining me today is Dr. Steve Bond who's the Director of Behavioral Medicine here at Riverside. Thanks for joining us today, Steven.
Dr. Steven Bond: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Liz Healy: Our topic today is going to be first responders and their mental health. But before we get started in our topic, can you tell me a little bit about your background?
Dr. Steven Bond: Sure thing. Yeah, like I said, my name is Dr. Steven Bond. I've been working with Riverside since June. And I was a volunteer firefighter back in El Paso, Texas for a few years where I got to see a lot of really wonderful work being done over there in El Paso. And it was really a great experience. I'm a therapist by trade. I'm a licensed professional counselor and I still have a private practice even today where I see clients on a regular basis. I've done lots and lots of pro bono work with first responders. I'm actually a Borderland first responder aid, if you will. And so I help out a lot of first responders in a pro bono basis over in Texas. We do that on a monthly basis. It's very successful.
Liz Healy: Oh, that's a lot of good things you're doing for the community. So one of the things I know I you're about when I talk to first responders are things that people really talk about when it comes to first responders, responding to traumatic experiences is PTSD. Can you tell me a little bit about PTSD and what it is? And how might an officer who experience this-- like could it be a lasting effect the rest of their life? Could it be something that maybe perhaps they can overcome with some type of therapy?
Dr. Steven Bond: Great. So PTSD or posttraumatic stress disorder, it's in a category of anxiety disorders. And this can come about from a number of different ways and there's an etiology behind it that is usually identified through situations where a patient or somebody is put in a life or death circumstance to where they have to defend themselves or have to defend somebody else.
So oftentimes, symptoms of PTSD don't just come about very quickly. Oftentimes they start out as some generalized anxiety and can then begin to manifest in other things like flashbacks later on down the line, typically about six months later. I worked with a lot of individuals in the service, Marines, Air Force, Navy, Army, and active duty soldiers many years back and saw a lot of the same significant PTSD symptoms in relation to flashbacks and anxiety attacks because of their service.
Police officers and firefighters are exactly the same response. There are a ton of anxiety responses that come with some of the work, and it's super important to make sure that they get help as soon as possible, right after any kind of incident, any kind of event. And that can be a real problem for some individuals, especially in those fields. They're very strong fields and everyone is very proud of who they are, but unfortunately, PTSD and anxiety disorders impact us all very much the same way, because we're all human.
Liz Healy: Yeah, and that kind of leads into something else I wanted to ask. So you touched on it. There's almost a stigma behind a first responder asking for help when they've had this traumatic experience in their life, a near death or type of experience that they've had. Is there something that we can do to encourage them? Maybe you can give an example of something that -- if I know a first responder that's had a traumatic experience and has not yet sought help, is there something that I can do to help encourage them to seek that help that they might need?
Dr. Steven Bond: Certainly. And the best thing that we can do is offer that hand or that person to talk to. Have somebody to have that conversation. And sometimes it's about saying, "Hey, how's it going? How are things going for you right now?" And I know that when dealing with any kind of significant patient event, which is usually what hits home for us the most, whenever we are talking about EMS or fire and first responders, especially police, whenever they're responding to scenes, is they don't really want to talk about it at that moment, which is perfectly fine. It makes sense. But over time, that question needs to come out, either from a fellow officer or from someone in the department to really check in on that person, make sure that they're okay and say, "Hey, you know, know that you witnessed this. Let's talk about that a little bit. Let's see if this is lingering and if there's any problems that begin to come up."
One of the first things that really starts to come up is poor sleep. And it's once they identify that they're not sleeping well, that they've got lots of increased anxiety related to certain events, that's when they have to really started getting some help.
Liz Healy: Okay. If I'm a fellow police officer or firefighter, or any type of first responder, how could I approach one of my fellow officers that I might've noticed that they are having that lack of sleep or generalized anxiety symptoms that we tend to see, fidgety. Is there something that I could do that's maybe not intrusive? What types of questions could I ask them?
Dr. Steven Bond: One thing that's really interesting about the helping profession is we're so close to each other. Officers have partners, fire department, EMS, they all have the same thing. There's a partner that you typically work with. They get to know the ins and outs of everything that you are every part of your life. And that is one of the ways that we can best utilize this. Whenever we know that someone has been involved with something that's traumatic, potentially traumatic or life-changing or life-altering event, and we start recognizing some of those key symptoms, the best thing to do is really pull them aside or invite them to coffee, invite them to breakfast, invite them over for dinner and say, "Hey, let's just chat about it. Let's talk about it."
There was a situation that wasn't directly involved in, but it was really impactful whenever I got to watch the firefighters talk about it. There was a young infant that had been caught in a fire and it was very traumatic for everyone involved. Man, these poor guys were just suffering and it was very clear. And one of the best things that they did was they pulled together and had an entire group just in the ambulance bay. It was phenomenal. And they were able to sit and really talk about how they felt. I mean, there were tears. There was lots of crying and lots of really wonderful emotions brought out. And that's something that we don't see enough of. That's something that we don't really get to see in a situation where we have, with police or with firefighters because it's a very strong, it's a very proud service. And we think that if we're showing any kind of emotion it's the same as being fearful or being scared of something or being shameful of something. And that's just not the case. Allowing for that emotion to come out is one of the best things in the world to do, because that can start the healing process.
Liz Healy: To kind of shift this a little bit, there could be a time when an officer might respond to a certain type of call consistently, perhaps someone that has mental health issues, they're responding to a call at this person's house, a disturbance, something that they see repeatedly. Is there something that that officer could do or like suggestions that we can maybe see them often that you can say, "Okay, how can I help you?" Are there suggestions you have to flip it? The officer might not be dealing with the mental health issue, but to someone that they see often.
Dr. Steven Bond: Yeah, absolutely. And something that happens to us a lot. Whenever we're just interacting with people, we think that, okay, everyone's going to react the same way that we do to things and be able to discuss open commentary about different things. But whenever we're working with someone that might have a psychiatric disturbance or a mental health disturbance, and they're having to deal with them repeatedly, one of the things that these individuals are looking for is someone to either listen to them or they need something. And that is always the best and first step to do is to say, "How can I help you?"
In the inpatient psych world, I've been working in inpatient psychiatry for 20 years. I've helped treat a lot of patients. I have helped deal with a lot of situations and it all comes down to what can I do for you now? How can I help you? Because sometimes it's not a matter of they need inpatient. It's not a matter of that they need this or they need that. Sometimes all it is is, "I just want someone to listen to me right now. I need someone to know where I hurt, how I hurt and that'll make me feel better."
Liz Healy: Okay. That's a really good answer, but what if this person is not willing to accept help? I know there's always that stigma that goes with accepting help for mental health issues, which there are a lot organizations out there trying to break that stigma, but it's still there right now, very prevalent. So how would you suggest approaching someone that might not voluntarily accept help on the mental health front?
Dr. Steven Bond: So if an officer or somebody was to engage with somebody that just really was obviously suffering from something and they didn't want to get any help again, that question comes up is, "What can I do for you today? What's the most important thing for you today?" And really start that conversation with them because maybe that's part of their norm. Maybe the behaviors that they have is part of what they deal with every single day. And maybe there's nothing wrong specifically for them at that time. Maybe having a good conversation with somebody is the best way to go for them.
Liz Healy: A lot of really good information here today. I want to thank you for joining us today, Steven. And is there any additional information that we could give our listeners if they need to reach out for mental health issues?
Dr. Steven Bond: Absolutely. So Riverside Medical Center has wonderful emergency department there where we also do have a CID or an intake department within that ER. We're available 24 hours for assessments and they can contact the emergency department and that intake department to be able to get any information they need about outpatient programming or any services inside the hospital or outside of the hospital as well.
Liz Healy: Perfect. Thank you for tuning into the Wall Within Reach podcast with Director of Behavioral medicine, Dr. Steven Bond, and your host, Liz Healy. To learn more about Riverside's Behavioral Medicine Department, visit our homepage at riversidehealthcare.org or call the Central Intake Department at (844) 442-2551.
Mental Health & First Responders
Riverside Healthcare puts the health and wellness information you need well within reach.
Liz Healy: Hello, listeners. And thanks for tuning into Well Within Reach podcast brought to you by Riverside Healthcare. I'm your host, Liz Healy. And joining me today is Dr. Steve Bond who's the Director of Behavioral Medicine here at Riverside. Thanks for joining us today, Steven.
Dr. Steven Bond: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Liz Healy: Our topic today is going to be first responders and their mental health. But before we get started in our topic, can you tell me a little bit about your background?
Dr. Steven Bond: Sure thing. Yeah, like I said, my name is Dr. Steven Bond. I've been working with Riverside since June. And I was a volunteer firefighter back in El Paso, Texas for a few years where I got to see a lot of really wonderful work being done over there in El Paso. And it was really a great experience. I'm a therapist by trade. I'm a licensed professional counselor and I still have a private practice even today where I see clients on a regular basis. I've done lots and lots of pro bono work with first responders. I'm actually a Borderland first responder aid, if you will. And so I help out a lot of first responders in a pro bono basis over in Texas. We do that on a monthly basis. It's very successful.
Liz Healy: Oh, that's a lot of good things you're doing for the community. So one of the things I know I you're about when I talk to first responders are things that people really talk about when it comes to first responders, responding to traumatic experiences is PTSD. Can you tell me a little bit about PTSD and what it is? And how might an officer who experience this-- like could it be a lasting effect the rest of their life? Could it be something that maybe perhaps they can overcome with some type of therapy?
Dr. Steven Bond: Great. So PTSD or posttraumatic stress disorder, it's in a category of anxiety disorders. And this can come about from a number of different ways and there's an etiology behind it that is usually identified through situations where a patient or somebody is put in a life or death circumstance to where they have to defend themselves or have to defend somebody else.
So oftentimes, symptoms of PTSD don't just come about very quickly. Oftentimes they start out as some generalized anxiety and can then begin to manifest in other things like flashbacks later on down the line, typically about six months later. I worked with a lot of individuals in the service, Marines, Air Force, Navy, Army, and active duty soldiers many years back and saw a lot of the same significant PTSD symptoms in relation to flashbacks and anxiety attacks because of their service.
Police officers and firefighters are exactly the same response. There are a ton of anxiety responses that come with some of the work, and it's super important to make sure that they get help as soon as possible, right after any kind of incident, any kind of event. And that can be a real problem for some individuals, especially in those fields. They're very strong fields and everyone is very proud of who they are, but unfortunately, PTSD and anxiety disorders impact us all very much the same way, because we're all human.
Liz Healy: Yeah, and that kind of leads into something else I wanted to ask. So you touched on it. There's almost a stigma behind a first responder asking for help when they've had this traumatic experience in their life, a near death or type of experience that they've had. Is there something that we can do to encourage them? Maybe you can give an example of something that -- if I know a first responder that's had a traumatic experience and has not yet sought help, is there something that I can do to help encourage them to seek that help that they might need?
Dr. Steven Bond: Certainly. And the best thing that we can do is offer that hand or that person to talk to. Have somebody to have that conversation. And sometimes it's about saying, "Hey, how's it going? How are things going for you right now?" And I know that when dealing with any kind of significant patient event, which is usually what hits home for us the most, whenever we are talking about EMS or fire and first responders, especially police, whenever they're responding to scenes, is they don't really want to talk about it at that moment, which is perfectly fine. It makes sense. But over time, that question needs to come out, either from a fellow officer or from someone in the department to really check in on that person, make sure that they're okay and say, "Hey, you know, know that you witnessed this. Let's talk about that a little bit. Let's see if this is lingering and if there's any problems that begin to come up."
One of the first things that really starts to come up is poor sleep. And it's once they identify that they're not sleeping well, that they've got lots of increased anxiety related to certain events, that's when they have to really started getting some help.
Liz Healy: Okay. If I'm a fellow police officer or firefighter, or any type of first responder, how could I approach one of my fellow officers that I might've noticed that they are having that lack of sleep or generalized anxiety symptoms that we tend to see, fidgety. Is there something that I could do that's maybe not intrusive? What types of questions could I ask them?
Dr. Steven Bond: One thing that's really interesting about the helping profession is we're so close to each other. Officers have partners, fire department, EMS, they all have the same thing. There's a partner that you typically work with. They get to know the ins and outs of everything that you are every part of your life. And that is one of the ways that we can best utilize this. Whenever we know that someone has been involved with something that's traumatic, potentially traumatic or life-changing or life-altering event, and we start recognizing some of those key symptoms, the best thing to do is really pull them aside or invite them to coffee, invite them to breakfast, invite them over for dinner and say, "Hey, let's just chat about it. Let's talk about it."
There was a situation that wasn't directly involved in, but it was really impactful whenever I got to watch the firefighters talk about it. There was a young infant that had been caught in a fire and it was very traumatic for everyone involved. Man, these poor guys were just suffering and it was very clear. And one of the best things that they did was they pulled together and had an entire group just in the ambulance bay. It was phenomenal. And they were able to sit and really talk about how they felt. I mean, there were tears. There was lots of crying and lots of really wonderful emotions brought out. And that's something that we don't see enough of. That's something that we don't really get to see in a situation where we have, with police or with firefighters because it's a very strong, it's a very proud service. And we think that if we're showing any kind of emotion it's the same as being fearful or being scared of something or being shameful of something. And that's just not the case. Allowing for that emotion to come out is one of the best things in the world to do, because that can start the healing process.
Liz Healy: To kind of shift this a little bit, there could be a time when an officer might respond to a certain type of call consistently, perhaps someone that has mental health issues, they're responding to a call at this person's house, a disturbance, something that they see repeatedly. Is there something that that officer could do or like suggestions that we can maybe see them often that you can say, "Okay, how can I help you?" Are there suggestions you have to flip it? The officer might not be dealing with the mental health issue, but to someone that they see often.
Dr. Steven Bond: Yeah, absolutely. And something that happens to us a lot. Whenever we're just interacting with people, we think that, okay, everyone's going to react the same way that we do to things and be able to discuss open commentary about different things. But whenever we're working with someone that might have a psychiatric disturbance or a mental health disturbance, and they're having to deal with them repeatedly, one of the things that these individuals are looking for is someone to either listen to them or they need something. And that is always the best and first step to do is to say, "How can I help you?"
In the inpatient psych world, I've been working in inpatient psychiatry for 20 years. I've helped treat a lot of patients. I have helped deal with a lot of situations and it all comes down to what can I do for you now? How can I help you? Because sometimes it's not a matter of they need inpatient. It's not a matter of that they need this or they need that. Sometimes all it is is, "I just want someone to listen to me right now. I need someone to know where I hurt, how I hurt and that'll make me feel better."
Liz Healy: Okay. That's a really good answer, but what if this person is not willing to accept help? I know there's always that stigma that goes with accepting help for mental health issues, which there are a lot organizations out there trying to break that stigma, but it's still there right now, very prevalent. So how would you suggest approaching someone that might not voluntarily accept help on the mental health front?
Dr. Steven Bond: So if an officer or somebody was to engage with somebody that just really was obviously suffering from something and they didn't want to get any help again, that question comes up is, "What can I do for you today? What's the most important thing for you today?" And really start that conversation with them because maybe that's part of their norm. Maybe the behaviors that they have is part of what they deal with every single day. And maybe there's nothing wrong specifically for them at that time. Maybe having a good conversation with somebody is the best way to go for them.
Liz Healy: A lot of really good information here today. I want to thank you for joining us today, Steven. And is there any additional information that we could give our listeners if they need to reach out for mental health issues?
Dr. Steven Bond: Absolutely. So Riverside Medical Center has wonderful emergency department there where we also do have a CID or an intake department within that ER. We're available 24 hours for assessments and they can contact the emergency department and that intake department to be able to get any information they need about outpatient programming or any services inside the hospital or outside of the hospital as well.
Liz Healy: Perfect. Thank you for tuning into the Wall Within Reach podcast with Director of Behavioral medicine, Dr. Steven Bond, and your host, Liz Healy. To learn more about Riverside's Behavioral Medicine Department, visit our homepage at riversidehealthcare.org or call the Central Intake Department at (844) 442-2551.