Soon we will observe the first year of our “Step Up & Step Out” Suicide Awareness & Prevention Initiative. While we acknowledge many other programs like ours around the country, “Step Up & Step Out” is our Team’s contribution to the work of many others who share our desire to address the issue of suicide in our emergency services family.
It is a sobering fact that we lose more firefighters each year to suicide than in line-of-duty deaths. Adding the statistics from our law enforcement, EMS, and 911 telecommunicator brothers and sisters and the numbers are difficult to comprehend.
Our program started after the loss of our friend Emily Avin, a young paramedic who took her life in September of last year. We were touched by the outpouring of love and support for her family and friends and were moved to do our part in her memory. The term “Step Up & Step Out” describes the goal of our program. We believe that if there were hundreds of us together in a gathering, we all would agree that suicide is a terrible epidemic that needs to be addressed. That agreement is the “Step Up” part. The “Step Out” part comes when we, as individuals, reach out to someone in need, leaving the comfort of our own homes or environment to go to someone’s side to be with them through their crisis, sitting with them, listening to them, offering them support and staying with them until we can take them to help, whether that is to a hospital, a clinician’s office, a mobile crisis center or at least to someone who can continue to be with them. Sometimes that may be for an hour, or for all night and, after the initial crisis, continuing to be there for them to be sure they are receiving the help they need. That my friends, is the “Stepping Out” part.
We know it works, it has many times already. Our “Step Out & Step Up” training program is available anytime for fire departments, EMS organizations, law enforcement officers, 911 telecommunicators, civic clubs, church groups, or any organization that would like to host it. It is a two-hour program, to be done during in-service training or at a meeting of your group. You can request it by calling 843.609.8300 or by emailing us at www.firefightersupport.org.
Will you join us? We must work together to overcome the stigma of asking for help and to encourage others to talk about the subject of suicide. We must try harder, work longer, and continue to do all we can, together, to prevent the loss of one of our own. Do it for them, do it for yourself, do it in Emily’s memory.
Gerald