Chief of Personnel Development Chesterfield Emergency Communications Chesterfield, Virginia
Mental Health is a concern for society as a whole. Emergency communications as a profession can hear about people’s pain, suffering and fear up to 16 hours a day. How do we support staff outside the communications center? We do that by educating their friends and family to understand the job. Pull back the curtain and look at the real life behind the headset. In this session we will talk about how we can do that for not only our current staff but those seasoned vets and the positive impact it can have.
Learning Objectives:
At the completion of this session, participants will be able to recognize the impact the profession has on their staff and their staff's mental health by defining terms such as Critical Incident Stress, Compassion Stress, and Fallacy of Uniqueness.
At the completion of this session, participants will be able to identify programs such as mentoring, secret pal, and employee assistance that can lead to the development of a support system inside and outside the Center.
Participants will gain the knowledge to develop and implement a presentation for employee's friends and family that serve as a support system to their staff. The community education developed will assist with establishing a platform to create an understanding between communications employees and their families.
