Often, we hear our 911 dispatchers refer to themselves as the “forgotten ones”. I have thought about this perception many times as we think about providing our services to them. In order to explain and not make excuses, these are my thoughts. During my career spanning many years, I have always considered our dispatchers and 911 folks as a part of our emergency services family. When they were employed by our individual fire, EMS and police departments we saw them each day and worked side by side with them. They were on our personnel rosters and took part in our department’s activities and events. We were blessed with many great dispatchers such as Clara, Susan, Margie, Mary, Beatrice, Elaine, and many, many others over the years, each one of them bringing something special to our department. I can personally tell you, as a command officer, it always brought an air of calmness, when all hell was breaking loose during an emergency, to have them providing the support we need in being that “voice” on the radio.
Well, now on to recent years as most of our counties and cities came together to provide “stand alone” 911 centers that are state-of-the-art staffed with professionals in their own organizations separate from our individual departments. That may, or may not, have contributed to the feeling of separation or feeling forgotten from us and our 911 folks.
I cannot speak for everyone, but I can tell you that they are, and will continue to be, a huge part of our lives as we continue to work to improve being a part of theirs. Our Team took a different approach back in 2008 when we recruited dispatchers to train as peer team members and to join us in providing behavioral health support to those with whom they worked. We were blessed back then with Abby Puckhaber (on the left) from the Charleston Fire Department, who was our first ever team member from a dispatch center. We are now blessed to have Michelle Brown (on the right), from the Charleston Consolidated 911 Dispatch Center serving as our Team’s 911 Dispatch Coordinator along with many others who have trained to take care of each other and to be a part of what we do. The Charleston 911 Center has been a leader in developing peer team resources within their own center complete with a “quiet” room to aid their folks needing to have a place to take a break after handling a difficult call. We believe this is setting the standard for caring for their personnel that others will follow in the future.
So, to our 911 friends, please let us know if we can provide assistance and support to you and your families and thank you for all that you do for us.
Gerald
