Firefighters plea for mental health support

Michael Sears knows what it takes to file a claim for posttraumatic stress disorder.

“It’s funny to say it was the scariest thing I’ve ever done,” the firefighter told a standing committee on human resources in Halifax recently.

“Going into a burning building? No big deal. Taking care of myself and going through to deal (with) the impact of what 20 years of firefighting did? It’s a lot.”

Sears, a member of the Halifax Professional Firefighters Association — IAFF Local 268, and Nova Scotia representative of the Atlantic Provinces Professional Firefighters Association, said one of the biggest battle firefighters face is mental health and wellness.

“We’ve got a culture that needs to change,” Sears said.

Greg Jones, president of the Fire Service Association of Nova Scotia, said the mental health program currently available to career and volunteer firefighters across the province is reactive instead of proactive.

To him, that’s not good enough.

“When we started, there was no conversation on mental health. There was no preeducation for it and I think that’s the component that’s been missed,” said Jones, whose association represents fire departments across the province.

“We need to prepare members right from the get-go and have the information to reduce that stigma to move forward.”

Sears said after chatting with other firefighters from other provinces, he noticed

Nova Scotia is “lagging quite far behind” in terms of mental health resources, training and education.

He said British Columbia, for example, has partnered with the medical faculty at the University of British Columbia to target issues faced by emergency responders.

Sears said Nova Scotia didn’t need to “reinvent the wheel” when it expanded its cancer liability coverage last year — and it doesn’t need an elaborate plan when it comes to addressing mental health concerns.

He said working with different organizations and foundations across the country who have already made steps in the right direction is key. So is having funding, education, and access to clinicians.

Jones said another issue plaguing firefighters is cancer screening.

“Often our members do not have a family physician and they do face delays in cancer screening, which in turn causes adverse effects on the fire service, especially in the mental health aspect,” he said.

Sears said despite Nova Scotia being the gold standard across Canada when it comes to its cancer liability coverage, there is still more that could be done to protect firefighters’ health.

“The reality is there’s probably people walking around that are sick and they don’t know it that are going to get to the point where then they’re symptomatic and they’re going to be too late to treat,” Sears said.

“Acess to cancer screens, physicians, that’s key in trying to get out in front of it.”

Sears, Jones and other past presidents of the Fire Service Association of Nova Scotia who were in attendance also asked the committee to consider operational dispatch solutions, making sprinklers mandatory in new builds and reducing variability between departments across the province.

Halifax Armdale MLA Ali Duale said while he has no experience in the fire service, it was one of the reasons why he became an MLA — to help make a difference in the field.

“We lost seven children in this city, in this province, and we have done nothing, zero action and with nobody’s fault. This is the nature of how we do business. Things happen and nobody takes accountability,” he said.

Syrian refugees Ebraheim and Kawthar Barho lost their seven children in a house fire in the Spryfield area of Halifax on Feb. 19, 2019.

“I am committed (to) the fire service and the protection and fire prevention.”