Tragedy

The recent school shooting in Connecticut has left me feeling sad and dismayed.  It is a terrible, tragic event that never should of happened.  Unfortunately, now it adds another layer of stereotypes and stigma to those that battle mental illness.  Selfishly, I see this as another hurdle for my cause.  I am out here trying to break down the stereotypes of mental illness and tell people that not everyone that has a mental health issue is dangerous.  While that remains true, this does not help my cause...at all.

Yesterday while reading through Twitter I cam across an interesting article from Huffington Post.  It was written by a mother who has a son with mental health issues.  It outlines the difficulties she faces everyday with her son.  It is a fantastic article and it sheds light into what families go through on a daily basis when dealing with mental illness.  I encourage you all to take a moment and read the article.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/16/i-am-adam-lanzas-mother-mental-illness-conversation_n_2311009.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

Words cannot express the pain and sorrow that the affected families are going through right now.  I don't know a lot about the person responsible for the tragedy but it would certainly appear that he is a very conflicted individual.  I don't know his back story and I don't know if anyone tried to get help for this individual or not but it certainly brings up an important point.  We cannot continue to hide from mental illness.  We, as a society, need to be more proactive.  We need to take the time to learn the warning signs.  Just like with any disease, early detection and early intervention are the keys.  We cannot stand by idly and hope these issues will just go away on their own.  If you have a family member that exhibits the signs of mental illness, you must intervene.  Professional help for these individuals is the only thing that can help them.  Our society as a whole must be proactive as well.  We can no longer push these individuals aside and ignore them.  These people have an illness and we must get them the help they need.  They may fight us, they may call us names or even try and attack us.  It will be difficult to say the least, but we must get them the help they need.

Firefighter Mental Health

As you all know, I am a big proponent of Life Safety Initiative 13 and Firefighter Mental Health.  I spoke earlier at great length about my on going struggles with depression and anxiety.  I think it is very important that we get the message out to firefighters that its okay to seek help for mental health issues.

I have been to a few departments spreading the message of Courage to Be Safe and Everyone Goes Home.  With that we hit on LSI 13.  So far I have gotten a lot of great feedback from the firefighters at these departments.  Most of the time they are very thankful that someone took the courage to stand up and share their story.  It is great to get this positive feedback.  I hope that the fact that it is coming from another firefighter makes it easier for the firefighters to relate to.  Hopefully because they have heard my story they know it is okay to seek help.  That is my goal... to be an advocate for firefighter mental health.  I am starting at the local level but soon hope to be expanding the my program.  I am working on developing a program that will focus solely on firefighter mental health but I would like your help.  If you are willing to help I would love to get your feedback about your thoughts on mental health disorders.  Here are a few questions to help get the dialog started:

     -Do you have any preconceived notions regarding mental health disorders?

     -What are those preconceived notions or stereotypes that you have?

     -Do you know the signs and symptoms of depression?

     -Do you know the signs and symptoms of anxiety?

     -Do you know the signs and symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder?

     -Do you know the signs of a person considering suicide?

     -Would you be willing to seek help if you thought you might be suffering from depression or anxiety?

     -If you were to seek help would you rather do it one on one or in a group setting?

   These are just a few questions that I would like to see responses to.  If you are willing to help, please post your responses in the comments section.  You can choose to remain anonymous if you chose.  The feedback received will be reviewed and help guide the creation of the firefighter mental health program.  I would love to hear your feedback.

Thanks
Drew