Who to talk to - for emergency service workers...?

Question

I work as a volunteer in a Fire & Rescue unit. Last night, I was called to an accident - fairly routine.

But last nights accident was the worst thing I have ever seen. We were called to the railway at 8pm with police.

On arrival, it began to be apparent. A train was parked, and we were told that it'd hit a pedestrian at high speed. The sight was the most gruesome,bloody thing I have ever seen - we couldnt even tell a gender. To keep out of detail, my issue is now dealing with it. The peer support team can't help due to a long backlog of work - but I can't get the images out of my head. I feel physically sick at the thought, can't focus and feel furious to know it was probably suicide - it seemed the "how" was so selfish. I can't go into details with my g/f or friends - but I need to talk to someone with enough stomach to get the details out of my head - my colleauges need the same. A local counselling service refused to hear detail in case it upset their staff. Who to talk to..

It feels to us we can't turn to anyone and it doesn't help trying to bounce off each other. It's too gruesome for friends to hear - but counselling are protecting their own hides by refusing in case it "upset their case workers" - which seems unfair. We need to talk to people face-to-face - phone isn't as much help. But we need it soon...so as to recover and move on to keep going to calls.

Who to talk to...? I feel very isolated...angry (at the selfishness if it was suicide)...sick.

Answer 1

It is hard to deal with those images, and impossible to every fully erase them. I worked EMS for 3 years and now work in the ER. If your coworkers are not available to talk to for support in dealing with this incident, a chaplain or priest would be good to talk to, even if you are not religious. If that is not available to you and you see it causing an interruption in your daily routine, a psychologist should not be ruled out. That doesn't make you weak, it is hard to deal with the things you see at an accident scene and can lead to depression, substance abuse, and even suicidal ideation. God bless you brother, and I will keep you in my prayers.

Answer 2

You do have friends who understand -- you just haven't met them all yet.

I did 3 years on a volunteer ambulence and fire dept. In addition, I was clergy for 7 years, meaning that I was always expected to go into hospital rooms, ER, etc. When the fire crew had a dead person I was the one who either got to take the body to the morgue, or worse yet, had to deal with the relatives while the police and fire did their thing.

In other words, I might know what you're going thru.

In every person, there are runs that really, REALLY bother them. Hell, think about it, do you want to be a human being where what you saw wouldn't bother you?

Locally, we had an incident where a dump truck (plus flat bed trailer hauling a backhoe) broadsided a pickup truck full of people. Nine of the 11 in the pickup died at the scene; I think that 7 were children. The rural dept that handled it brought in a person to talk thru that with the entire dept. I'd hope that your dept would do the same. I'm suprised that your dept / employer doesn't have processes and structures in place for this. After all, this is how they lose people, and how valued employees start becoming screwups (drugs, sex, alcohol, etc).


If you have a dept chaplin then I'd start there. You might also talk to the chaplin at the hospital -- they're used to seeing the worst possible scenes in their ER, and get to debrief docs and nurses all the time. Also use your contacts with local law enforcement -- I'm sure that the State Police have people who'd talk to you, and probably the bigger depts have contracts with agencies that provide such services.

Answer 3

Hi. I used to work for the Coroners office so I know what your saying exactly. You are having post traumatic stress. Your work is required to get you counseling if you need it. Please ask them. But its not the scene or what you saw you need to talk about, its your feelings. Anger, fear, regret, etc. Yes he was probably selfish, but you don't know what he was going through. Remember compassion and don't just think anger. Think how sad it was he felt he needed to do that. You can go on with your life but he can not. Sad, very sad. As far as the images go you will lose them I promise. Sometimes they will pop up but it will not be as traumatic. Good luck to you. I've been there.

Answer 4

Does your department (or an allied service, like the police?) have a chaplain you can grab?

Or try contacting the head of the emergency room at your local/regional hospital and see what they do for crisis management for their staffers in this sort of crunch----any kind of "quick response" team you can borrow?

May the Eternal watch over you and your co-workers, and give you comforts and strengths.

Answer 5

there are hotlines for grievence counselors, and I deal with death every day in my line of work, so if you need someone to talk to about it just im me lsmith3332000

Answer 6

i'm sorry....