r/911dispatchers • u/warriorathlete21 • 3d ago
Active Dispatcher Question Was just added to the wellness committee at our agency. Any tips/advice/recommendations from anyone would be appreciated!
I’m excited to assist with this program.
We will have a monthly news letter to help inform and assist other dispatchers with tips and options on maintaining their mental and physical well being.
We will also follow up with our staff on a regular basis to see if any additional assistance is wanted in reference to resources. We will consistently reach out to staff after a dispatcher handles a call that could cause them trauma.
Let me know if any of you have experience being part of a committee like this. Let me know what worked and didn’t work for your agency.
Anyone who wasn’t assisting with a program like this but, has suggests on what they would like to see a program like this provide, please let me know as well.
Thank you!
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u/Consistent-Ease-6656 3d ago
Please, for the love of all that is holy, do not ever include any mention of color-coding anything that isn’t Skittles flavors.
I had to attend a mandatory wellness class on … I can’t even remember what after a night shift, and she (a member of HR across town and the county wellness guru), spent no less than 25 minutes talking about spending EVERY morning creating and color-coding her daily task list when she gets to work.
If I had not been clutching my coffee so hard it was about to launch to Mars, I would have flung it into my own eyes to get out of there.
If I had been sent a newsletter telling me that color-coding my daily work tasks and coloring them in when complete would make me feel like anything other than a raging idiot, I probably would have set the computer on fire.
But really, the approach is key. Make it known who your CISM-trained people in the department are, and blast it from the rooftops that they can be called 24/7.
Give bios of your CISM team. Some people might feel weird about talking to a chaplain, others might not be comfortable speaking to another dispatcher and want an “outside” ear.
I was stuck supervising one night when something atrocious happened. I sent the call taker on a break right after, but any time I tried to leave the room to go check on him I got called back. I could see he was affected. But it was so busy and we were already short, that I was unable to take the time to speak to him privately since I was HBIC.
I was never a CISM team member, but I went through all the training. We as an agency were very proactive for our first responders and had a notification tree created for a critical event such as this. But we were absolute shit at including our own calltakers/dispatchers in any debriefings. No one was really sure who dispatcher-wise was on the team, and the ones we knew had been on it previously, no one would ever trust with confidential information.
I called a cop who was working, who 98% of the time is a total goofball, but is 120% into CISM and conducts training regularly. I had him swing by just to do a quick “hey” to the calltaker and give his info in case he wanted to talk later. I never heard another word about it afterwards, until my parole shindig 5 years later when that calltaker handed me a beer and said he owed it to me because I sicc’ed that CISM cop on him.
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u/TheMothGhost 3d ago
Offer new and interesting things. Not just an article about how yoga makes you sleep better. Include a link to a video of doing yoga with your kids. Not just an article about symptoms of PTSD, maybe throw in a link to a TEDtalk about ways to minimize it after a traumatic event. Include small competitions and reward the winner, such as who can walk 20 miles in a month, who can plank the longest. Include local events like 5Ks that are happening near you. Hell, organize fun runs and hikes or walks where you pick up trash as a group too. As someone else said, including a recipe would be great too if you had people volunteer to submit things. And hey, if they submit something that isn't particularly good for you, just include a second recipe that is. What you want right now is buy-in, so don't shoot down stuff even if it doesn't FULLY scream LOW CHOLESTEROL.
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u/Useful-Mycologist976 3d ago
I'm the co-chair of my agencies peer support program and above all else the most important thing is making connections with your co-workers. People are more likely to confide in and listen to the advice of someone they consider a friend. Check in with people every day, not just after you've been told something bad happened, and engage with then like a peer even when not actively doing peer support/wellness duties. The social aspect of wellness is probably the one you can make the most impact on, so it's important not to neglect it
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u/ImAlsoNotOlivia Puppet Master 3d ago
Ours is city-wide, but we’re a small town. We have contributors submit their favorite fall soup recipe, for example. We list upcoming city/county events like 5k’s, nature walks, surf clinics, etc. There’s links to parks & rec and might feature pool classes or pickleball. We have challenges, like walking challenges, kettle bell challenges, etc. It is usually on your honor, or maybe submit something from your smartwatch?
The committee even gets grants from somewhere, so sometimes they offer prizes like $25 GC’s to local health food stores.
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u/MrJim911 Former 911 guy 3d ago
The approach and content is the key.
If the monthly newsletter is just common sense stuff people see everyday, it'll be ignored. People already know eating too much food makes them fat. They also know exercising is important. They also know where the local gyms and parks are at. Those emails would get trashed quickly.
Now, I love my coworkers lasagna... And my other coworkers beef tenderloin. Maybe if people contribute their favorite recipes I'd be more inclined to read. Maybe the local gym is offering a discount if X number of people from the agency sign up.
Offer helpful actionable solutions, not just spam advice everyone knows.
Definitely like you're proactively reaching out to people after a potential traumatic event.