I am at an age where I get my best thoughts in the middle of the night often in a dream. My wife keeps telling me to get a pen and notepad and put it next to me on the night table so I can write it down. I keep forgetting! However, I posted something a few hours ago and while I still have this idea in my head, I thought it might be wise to write it down before I forget!
I am a chaplain. I think chaplains (the right type of chaplains) could have a significant role in getting those being oppressed with PTSD, the help they need. To understand this a bit better, consider the process involved with pretty well anything in life that is uncomfortable to do. Writing this blog is actually uncomfortable because I know some professionals won't agree with what I write and automatically dismiss my ideas because I am not "one of them". So I may write 3 or 4 draft copies before I actually publish this. Many in management (if you have a heart) find it very difficult to fire someone and it often feels easier to keep putting it off. So how about someone who thinks they might suffer from PTSD? Imagine this person is 6'2" and a well-decorated cop with a wife and 3 children. Maybe he plays hockey with his colleagues once or twice a week and is considered the best athlete in the division. Nobody, including his wife and 3 children know that he has been struggling with PTSD for 2 years. It started when he shot and killed a "bad guy" even though he had pulled a gun on him. Shooting another human being and knowing that they died as a result, is seldom easy to handle. A few months later he is on a call where he goes into a home only to find a 3 year old child dead and it reminds him of  his own 3 year old.
But then a year or so later he hears the good news that the government is going to help those suffering from PTSD by classifying it as a "Workplace illness", qualifying him for compensation. Sounds very promising, doesn't it?
Except one not so minor issue: the stigma attached to that "illness" remains. That cop who was keeping his "illness" from everyone still has that secret. So the peer counselling, psychologist/psychiatrist visits, yoga, equine therapy and Buddhist meditation will all have to wait. Nothing has really changed in his life.
Now I would like to introduce the "chaplain". If you read my earlier post of today, you will have some idea what my type of chaplain does. They build relationships and with that trust. They don't preach at people and they don't judge them. In my perfect world, a chaplain would be on the road with First Responders all the time. They would be there as soon as they start their training and still there as they are about to retire. In fact they would even be there in their retirement because PTSD doesn't disappear because you no longer chase bad guys, fight fires or attend to injured people.
A chaplain is an advocate and a friend who is always available for spiritual counsel but even more importantly, is a listening ear at all times. The other important thing to remember, as mentioned several times in my previous blogs, talking to a chaplain is always confidential. The only exception is if the person is a threat to themselves or others. It was actually someone that headed up Homicide in a certain police service that suggested chaplains on every shift. Let me explain from my point of view why this would be important.
The key for this to work is based on the ability to gain the trust of First Responders. If a chaplain is only seen once a month by one or two cops for example, it is not easy to build any kind of trust. Not impossible but difficult. The listening may come while on the road but more likely over  a cup of Starbucks or Tim Hortons coffee. The chaplain however needs to be seen as someone who understands the life of a First Responder and the best way to do that is by being on the road as much as possible. Saying grace at retirement parties and the occasional ride-along as with the police, won't necessarily work.
Now for the second part of this and how to gauge the effectiveness of such an undertaking. Obviously it takes time. There needs to be training for the chaplains and their ability to recognize potential PTSD sufferers. There may in fact be some who don't show the symptoms but there are probably ways to identify those who are most prone based on their history. The important thing to remember is that we want to get these First Responders the help they need and to make it as easy and painless as possible for them to come forward and in this case, to chaplains.
Reporting is something I have also thought about. How do we report this to management without exposing anyone that wants anonymity? My suggestion is simple but something that needs the total buy-in of upper management. The chaplain would be responsible for contacting the respective EAP representatives and referring First Responders to them or Peer Support groups. Secondly, the chaplain would report the "numbers" to upper management so that they would be satisfied with the effectiveness of the strategy. No names would ever be provided unless the First Responder agreed to it.
My hope is that there is a police service that is willing to at least consider this. I am not looking for work so this is not about me. I do however feel strongly about this. It may very well be that someone will come up with a better way to do this but as long as our First Responders struggle with this issue, action needs to take the place of good ideas. I hope we can all agree on that!