The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) has expanded its Resilient Minds program from British Columbia to all across the country. This program aims to bring formal psychoeducation to fire halls and departments across Canada in an attempt to tackle the occupational stress and trauma responses that are all too common in that field. 

The program was originally developed by the CMHA in Vancouver in 2016 but has since expanded to the many Yukon, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Saskatchewan fire departments. 

"The program was designed because the education to safeguard their psychological health hasn't been taught as part of the technical training for firefighters," explained Phyllis O'Connor, Executive Director of the CMHA Saskatchewan Division. "So that really puts them at risk of developing psychological injuries as part of their work." 

O'Connor explained that this program is not just for career firefighters, but volunteer ones as well. She explained that a lot of the resources that have been made available to career firefighters are not accessible by the volunteers. Because of this, the Resilient Minds program is open to both volunteers and career workers. 

Due to the nature of their work, firefighters are exposed to significant trauma and require skills to safeguard their psychological health, however, these skills are not part of their training. This puts them at risk of developing psychological illness and contributes to a high rate of suicide amongst firefighters, which is 30% higher than the general population. 

"It's a program that we have instructors go out to the various fire halls, then someone who represents the fire halls are actually trained to deliver this programming to the fire hall staff," O'Connor added. "So it's really on a peer support basis." 

She says they use a peer-to-peer model of instruction to share this instruction with fellow firefighters about the latest literature on resilience, stress, and stress-related injuries.