Constant exposure to traumatic and critical incidents can take a toll on first responders. Accumulated occupational stress increases risk for burnouts, compassion fatigue, trouble concentrating, irritability, personal and family issues, mental health issues, sleep problems, reduced productivity, and physical alignment.
Fiona has a great sensitivity of the demands first responders face on a regular basis and how, over time, instinctive survival responses to traumatic stress may become maladaptive and detrimental to the worker’s overall well-being. After recently completing an intensive occupational awareness training in treating first responder trauma, Fiona is on the preferred list of clinicians for BC firefighters and is equipped to assist first responders in other industries.
Individualized Sustainable Well-Being Module (ISWB)©
Instruments in any operation require quality assurance, safety standards, and maintenance to achieve optimum productivity. First responders are the human instrument in which psychological wear and tear are real in the context of the high stress and frequent/daily exposure to trauma that is taken as part of the job.
While a first responder’s wellbeing is linked to many aspects within the whole system, this ISWB module looks after the wellness and maintenance of the human instrument (first responders) with its primary objective to enhance individual resiliency. The ISWB serves the following purposes:
- Serve as an essential psychological building block to protect first responders’ psychological health and well-being (mind, heart and body)
- Serve primarily as a preventive program, with intervention via maintenance sessions as the secondary function
- Enhance personal resiliency, taken into consideration of individual differences with the understanding that no one-size fits all