This week, June 22-26, marks Safety Stand Down: Rebuild Rehab week, an annual joint initiative of the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) and the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC). This year’s theme, Rebuild Rehab, focuses on mental health resiliency in the fire services community.
To honor this initiative and the firefighters and other first responders in our readership, Homeland Security Today has today dedicated a new Subject Matter page on Mental Health Resilience and focused a complementary campaign, HSToday’s Mental Armor, on providing resources, stories, webinars, and other contributions to help our readers be mind and body strong.
Throughout the week, HSToday will be posting relevant articles and resources for fire services and first responders about mental health. From exercise to calming apps, to free community resources, to how to develop a mental health resilience plan for your community, this campaign aims to support those giving their all in these stressful careers that take a mental as well as physical toll.
We also feature some nonprofit organizations dedicated to first responder mental health, all submitted by readers of Homeland Security Today. We urge readers to get in touch with these organizations to learn more or to make a donation to support them and the services needed to support our first responders.
On Thursday, June 24, we will host a webinar on building mental health into preparedness plans by Sharon Cohen, co-author of Disaster Mental Health Community Planning, that will provide an outline of how to incorporate mental health into your plan.
Please reach out to us if you have resources available or need additional information for yourself or your colleagues.
