You can save a life

A conversation about firefighter suicide awareness

Recently on the CPF Fire Wire podcast, CPF President Brian Rice sat down for a conversation with Oxnard Fire Chief Alex Hamilton. A former board member of Oxnard Firefighters Local 1684, Chief Hamilton has developed groundbreaking peer-to-peer suicide awareness and intervention training for firefighters. Below are excerpts from that conversation.

How did you come to be involved with the issue of peer counseling and suicide awareness?

One of the things that was obvious to us was that we just weren’t taking very good care of our firefighters, not only immediately after incidents but also educating them as to what behavioral health issues look like. Then we had a significant incident on Thanksgiving – a pediatric fatality, vehicle vs. pedestrian – that really impacted me (and the firefighter I was with) very significantly, but we didn’t have any resources. That was sort of the (“a-ha”) moment where we needed to do something.

Once you realized that the services weren’t there, what did you do?

At first, I thought we would just fix what we had, a sort of poorly implemented CISM (Critical Incident Stress Management) program. The more research I did, and reaching out to the IAFF, we were able to get some grant money and worked with IAFF to create a two-day peer support program. But because we had had issues with suicide within our department, we knew we needed to address that issue, too.

How did you implement suicide awareness and prevention?

We worked from a model developed by FDNY (Living Works) that focused on a tiered approach to suicide prevention. So everyone in our department would get three hours of suicide awareness training, and then our peer support folks would get two days of intervention training. We’ve trained over 450 firefighters in California on the two-day intervention program.

How do you identify someone who may be struggling? What are the signs to look for?

When we’re talking about warning signs, what you see, hear, sense or learn are the four basic things. Maybe you hear them say something, or see a strange behavior, or hear from someone else about problems in their family. Maybe someone is just isolating in the station or not participating in normal activities. Those can be the things to watch for.

If you hear those warning bells go off, what do you do? How do you talk to them about it?

Talking about suicide, and exploring whether you think somebody is at risk of suicide, is an incredibly difficult conversation to have. But if you can get somebody that’s willing to talk to you about it, the fact that they’re talking is huge. If you come from a place of caring, you can have that conversation and it’s hard for somebody to push you away. When talking about suicide, it has to be a clear ask: “Are you thinking about suicide?” or “Are you thinking about killing yourself?” If they say “yes,” then you’ve cracked the door open that could possibly save a life.

What would you say to a firefighter that might be struggling?

At any given time, 5% of the population is considering suicide. What I would say with these feelings is I sincerely hope you are visible to those around you. You do have a community. You do belong. There are people that care for you. Please reach out for help. If you have trouble making that first conversation, the national suicide hotline (988) is the perfect place to start.