“TAKING CARE OF OURSELVES, WHILE TAKING CARE OF OTHERS”Melissa Camp is the Director for Behavioral Health Services at Colleton Medical Center in Walterboro, South Carolina. Before working in the inpatient setting at Colleton, Melissa worked for 16 years in community mental health, where her roles included managing the Assessment Mobile Crisis Team, First Responder Support Team (FRST), and the Tri-County Crisis Stabilization Center in Charleston, SC. Melissa has training and experience with evidence-based practices, such as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM). She most enjoys working with First Responders and individuals in psychiatric crisis. She has provided trainings and presentations on issues such as verbal de-escalation, mental health crisis assessments and safety planning, Borderline Personality Disorder, crisis negotiation, and Crisis Intervention Team for law enforcement. She has also been involved with providing EMDR to First Responders for treatment of trauma through the SC Law Enforcement Assistance Program and SC Department of Corrections at Post-Critical Incident Seminars.
Melissa is well-known in the First Responder world, especially in South Carolina where she supported and mentored many of us after the Sofa Super Store fire in Charleston in 2007 that resulted in the loss of nine Charleston firefighters. She was also instrumental in supporting the community after the 2008 Emanuel Church shootings resulting in the tragic deaths of nine church members attending a Bible Study. She is an amazing asset to the emergency services behavioral health programs for all first responders in our State.
Melissa’s presentation will address self-care and the passion for the work we love. She will discuss the physical and emotional effects of being a First Responder, the habits and practices that lead to burnout, and ways to implement healthier practices to find your passion again.