On March 2-3, more than 150 attendees gathered for the second 9-1-1 Wellness Summit in Portland, Oregon. While extremely important, discussions about wellness can be difficult, so APCO prepared accordingly. Coloring books and markers were provided to all attendees, quiet rooms outside the session room were available so attendees could take breaks as needed, and therapy dogs were in attendance throughout the event.
On day one of the summit, Stephanie Conn, PhD, ABPP Board Certified in Police & Public Safety Psychology, Licensed Psychologist, First Responder Psychology, presented on ways telecommunicators can get unstuck from their trauma when they are stuck at their consoles. Stephanie’s presentation began with a plain-language discussion of the neurobiology of trauma and how therapies such as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Acute Stress Adaptive Protocol (ASAP) can help desensitize people to certain traumatic events and triggers. According to Stephanie, EMDR results in a 44% reduction in PTSD symptoms. She believes that it’s important to talk about these traumas and the negative side effects that public safety telecommunicators experience so that people understand how common the response is.
The next part of Stephanie’s presentation focused on actual strategies for reducing stress and trauma symptoms after taking a difficult or triggering call. Strategies included:
- Techniques to ease stress when you’re at the console but not on a call: humming, singing, gargling, neck turns with eye turns, ear pulls. These things activate the vagus nerve, which regulates heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, digestion and immunity.
- Ways to downshift your nervous system when you are feeling keyed up: listening to music, breath exercises, mental imagery, yoga, meditation and tension-releasing exercises (TREs).
- Strategies when stuck on low: exercise, light therapy, alkaline (DMT) breathing, Wim Hof breathing or cold plunge/showers.
Stephanie discussed the success she has seen from these therapies. Her work with law enforcement and emergency communications has included helping people participate in debriefings without significant levels of distress. One of her participants said, “After one 45 minutes session I could talk through this trauma for the first time without breaking down.”
After her presentation, Stephanie invited attendees to participate in an Acute Stress Adaptive Protocol (ASAP). It was a group session where participants sat in the front of the room and observers stayed in the back to ensure the privacy of participants. The session allowed participants to experience the benefit of proactively addressing difficult events while developing and practicing stress management tools.
Day two began with opening remarks from Platinum sponsor Eventide. Following was a session, FIT for the Call, with Charles Hedgespeth, Instructor, LevelUp 911 Training. Charles talked about the importance of prioritizing your health in this field. He walked through simple yet effective changes to incorporate into your daily life. He talked about three types of health — physical, mental and social. He stressed the importance of making small changes noting, “I’m not asking you to run a marathon today.” He defined wellness as the activities, choices and lifestyles that we choose for ourselves and the active pursuit of those three things.
The next session, presented by Sara Brady, MS, FDN, AADP, AACC, Thin Line Consulting; and Arielle Schmidt, Tranquility Rising, focused on Eastern and Western strategies for sleep and healing. The speakers explored the critical interplay between physical, emotional and psychological health and its impact on sleep quality. This included information on the sleep stages and how each stage helps different areas of your body and brain recover, and “bio-hacking” tips that telecommunicators might need to adjust their bodies and sleep to long shifts or overnight shifts. Additionally, Sara and Arielle provided sleep hygiene tips such as sleeping in a dark room, having a consistent schedule, eliminating screen time, etc. The session closed with a guided exercise with the audience for a series of stretches and Delsarte movement, a way to connect the body and relax your muscles to ease the stress in the body. The speakers stressed that these exercises can be done for as little as five minutes at your console and still be helpful for bringing you back into your body when feeling stress in the ECC.
After lunch, audience members broke into groups for a led activity to co-create a mural-sized, visual network of their connections. Participants drew pictures of their various interests, which they then shared in their groups to connect with one another’s interests. Then the groups identified areas where they need support in their lives and areas where they felt they could provide support to others. Each group shared with the broader audience and strove to identify the areas where people could support each other.
The next session featured Jessica Tresch, an emergency communications supervisor and peer support coordinator at Denver 9-1-1, and Amber Cass, a workforce management analyst at Denver 9-1-1, discussing how they built a peer support team at their ECC. They shared that while there’s no “one size fits all” peer support program, there are certain tips that they felt help them be successful the top one being to never stop asking, because eventually you will get a ‘yes’. Jessica and Amber also discussed the importance of keeping diversity, equity and inclusion in mind when forming the peer support team so that people feel represented and can relate to the peer support members when going through a crisis or difficult situation that impacts their community.
The summit closed with a very personal session from Ryan Chambers, Account Executive, Mindbase, sharing his experience with peer support. In February 2018 Ryan’s wife passed away. While his wife was in the hospital and after she died, he experienced the incredible power of support from those who truly showed up for him — both his personal family and his public safety family. Ryan shared that “peer support is just caring about that person beside you.”
Thank you to everyone who attended and shared at the 9-1-1 Wellness Summit, and thank you to our sponsors and supporters for making this event possible.
