“消防员的兄弟情谊。”“我们照顾自己。”“每个人都在转变结束时回家。”这些是我们在电影中听到的陈述，在书籍中阅读，并在消防队周围使用多年，但他们是否准确地描绘了今天正在发生的事情？我们是否在行为健康问题方面照顾我们自己？每个人都以适当的心态结束的时候回家吗？兄弟会存在，还是我们对情绪困扰的消防员视而不见？这些是消防服务，尤其是首席官员的所有成员都应该问自己。
消防员是普通人，被要求做非凡的事情。当其他人都用完时，他们遇到了燃烧的建筑物。他们在可怕的事故场景中运作，是需要救出人的最后一个希望。通过这一切，他们正在处理每个人面临的日常问题，例如财务问题和家庭危机。它们提供了吹灭火灾和救援人员的工具，但是处理在他们的工作中处理压力的工具呢。
作为海军陆战队的一员,矫正ficer, and a member of the fire service for the past 26 years, I have been exposed to many of these job stressors. They include serious injuries, fatalities, and most recently the stress involved with leading a large urban city fire department with reduced staffing and budget. Throughout my career, I have received very little training in behavioral health issues until recently. When my training director approached me in 2012 with a request to bring suicide-prevention training to the department, he had prepared himself with a thorough argument in case I said no. Much to his surprise, I immediately agreed to the training for reasons known only to myself and a select few. The training director was unaware that my father, a retired firefighter, had died as a result of suicide four years earlier.
