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MINUTE UPDATE: September 3, 2010: 911 Advocacy
What does it really mean to be "ready" for NG911?
As the month begins, my thoughts are increasingly focused on that question. Let me briefly explain my concern: The National NENA Conference in Indianapolis in June featured a Town Hall Meeting on preparing for NG911. I listened as a panel of 911 leaders engaged the audience from throughout North America in discussion about the many complex budgetary, legal, technological, and bureaucratic challenges involved in launching NG911.
By the end of the meeting, there was one concern burning in my mind that had been left unaddressed. I posed it as a question privately to one of the panel members: "What kind of dialog is happening among 911 leaders about the psychological impacts of NG911 on the person of the dispatcher?" This dedicated 911 leader offered a sincere response: very little formal thought has been given to this concern. This is deeply disturbing to me, and it should be to you too.
As noted in my August Update below, NENA is launching a new Working Group on 911 Acute, Traumatic, and Chronic Stress. As a clinician-member of this group, I will work to assure that the psychological challenges of NG911 are defined, and that NENA offers guidance to North American PSAPs in how to equip dispatchers to deal with the unprecedented stress that new multimedia caller experiences will create. If we do not start planning NOW to prepare dispatchers for the impacts of watching and listening to real-time death as they fight to save lives at the console, the toll in the 911 Community will be severe.
When I think of my sister, recently retired Deborah Achtenberg, ENP, this issue becomes very personal. Imagining that she was still a front-line dispatcher, would I want her subjected to a regular diet of the kind of traumatic experience NG911 will likely dish up? No. Yet, if her PSAP leaders provided her and her 911 peers with carefully designed stress tools and protocols to handle NG911 trauma, I could breathe more easily knowing that she could protect her personal health.
My invitation to you: tell me what you think: do you share my concern? Do you want to lend your voice to future conversations and policy making on this? Please help us as we support federal and state government leaders in addressing this critical NG911 issue. I will respond personally to all email sent to Jim@911Training.net. Thank you!
MINUTE FOR August, 2010: The Institute's Work Continues to Grow!
On the Training Front... In August we saw our July goals (see below) becoming reality. Jim launched our new 2 Day "Survive & Thrive: 911 Stress and Relationships!" in Midland, Michigan. We had a terrific group of dispatchers--sharp newbies, mid-career folks and some long-time veterans. Every "student" offered great contributions and their outstanding reviews affirmed that we're on track with this new Survive & Thrive course--we hoped it would take you to an entirely different level in understanding and dealing with Acute, Traumatic, and Chronic stress) AND PSAP Relationships. They agreed! Rebuilt from the ground up based on powerful concepts Jim introduced at the May, 2010 NENA Conference, this 16 hour course can you ahead of the curve anticipating Michigan's upcoming mandatory training requirements on stress management.
In 911 Advocacy... (Training is good, but it's NOT ENOUGH!) We're also thrilled to now publicly confirm that the National Emergency Number Association has launched the NENA Working Group on 911 Stress.This group's task is to build policies and an educational campaign empowering YOU and all your 911 colleagues to prevent, manage, and overcome the toxic impacts of acute, traumatic, and Chronic 911 Stress. Our special thanks to Immediate Past President Craig Whittington and NENA Staffer Rick Jones, NENA Operations Issues Director for hearing our concerns and responding with this formal and broad-reaching leadership initiative. The initiative is "near and dear" to the heart of the Institute and our mission!
Help us make a difference! If you'd like to join Jim and other NENA members from the USA and Canada on the 911 Stress Working Group now being formed, e-mail Rick today! Or to simply "weigh in" on the topic, sharing your views with Jim call him @ 231.881.1434.
MINUTE for July, 2010: Moving Beyond Stress Training
By popular request, I will be launching our new Two Day Survive and Thrive course in August in Michigan, and we invite agencies throughout North America to host this course. But successfully informing the 220,000 dispatchers (in the U.S.A. alone!) about the risks of 911 traumatic stress will take much more than training. That's why we've also been working hard to help PSAP leaders and NENA members recognize the need to intensify education on PTSD and other stress-related problems in 911 Centers. An all-out education campaign reaching every PSAP leader is needed. I am thrilled to report that NENA has affirmed the importance of such a campaign. More to come on this in the months to come.
MINUTE for June, 2010: National NENA Conference a Quality Experience
Changing of the Guard. There were many highlights at the Conference in Indianapolis. Craig Whittington, ENP, stepped down after a successful term as NENA's 2009-2010 NENA President as incoming President Steve O'Conor, ENP, was sworn in. Thank you, Craig for serving all of us so well! And congratulations, Steve!
If you couldn't make it NENA 2010, check out more highlights including YouTube videos here. Also in Indy, I met with Rick Jones, NENA Operations Issues Director, 1st Vice President Rick Galway, ENP, and a cadre of Michigan 911 Leaders to explore the PTSD initiative discussed above (see Minute 1). Visit our site regularly for updates on progress!
MINUTE for May, 2010: Michigan NENA Conference Also Outstanding! Emergency Communications Professionals from around Michigan, joined by Craig Whittington, ENP, counting down the final days of his reign as NENA President enjoyed for several days of excellent presentations, networking, and support at the 2010 Michigan NENA Conference in Lansing. Jim Marshall of 911 Training Institute presented two sessions: "C'mon: We can do Better than This! Detoxing 911 Relationships" and "PTSD in the PSAP: 911 Centers as Hotbeds of Psychological Trauma". The response from dispatchers to Jim's presentations was very positive. He stated: "I felt incredibly encouraged by their support to push on in educating dispatch professionals about trauma. They related strongly to this information! Their expressed need for more knowledge about traumatic stress in the PSAP has deepened my commitment to the 'EMDR for 911 Campaign'." (For more information on this national effort, click here.)
The Institute applauds Michigan NENA President Karen Chadwick, ENP and her planning committee for an incredibly well-run conference. Jim added: "I highly urge all dispatchers to attend their state NENA conferences and become active in the organization. You can help share the future of the emergency communications profession by getting involved in NENA!"
MINUTE for April, 2010: This Spring has been busy Building LifeBridges to Suicidal Callers!
Jim launched the Spring training tour on March 3 and 4, 2010 serving dispatchers from Brown County and surrounding Wisconsin areas. On March 29 and 30, LifeBridges came to Traverse City, Michigan, followed by Lansing, MI on April 19 and 21, and Auburn Heights MI on April 20 (Oakland Community College Dispatch Academy). Most recently Jim returned to Green Bay by request of Brown County Interim Director, Shelly Nackers who stated that enthusiasm among the March course participants prompted many additional requests for this course.
MINUTE for March, 2010: LifeBridges to Become a Two Day Course!
911 Training Institute has carefully reviewed the results of our student evaluations and are thrilled by the response to LifeBridges. By popular request, we have decided to make this core curriculum course a two day experience. This extended format will allow us to include even more great experiential training including new digital audio examples of suicide calls modeling outstanding 911 responses. We will also include an optional critical incident stress debriefing to help attending dispatchers work through recent or lingering traumatic 911 call experiences.
MINUTE for February, 2010: 911 Institute forms Advisory Council
We have had an extraordinary response to our invitation for dispatchers to join 911 Training Institute's Advisory Board which will launch soon. This advisory board will join together dispatch leaders from around the country in the effort to build better policies, processes, and training for 911 telecommunicators managing suicide and high-stress calls. To learn more about the topic areas we will cover click on the For Best Practice and For Your Health tabs above.
The Council membership is selected from among all stakeholders in the 911 Community including front-line dispatchers, PSAP directors, training coordinators, supervisors, and any emergency responders or mental health experts concerned with creating best practice in 911 response to suicidal callers and supporting the mental health of dispatchers who serve them. Council work will be done via email, Skype (as needed) and by phone. If you'd like to join the Advisory Council, email Jim Marshall.
What does it really mean to be "ready" for NG911?
As the month begins, my thoughts are increasingly focused on that question. Let me briefly explain my concern: The National NENA Conference in Indianapolis in June featured a Town Hall Meeting on preparing for NG911. I listened as a panel of 911 leaders engaged the audience from throughout North America in discussion about the many complex budgetary, legal, technological, and bureaucratic challenges involved in launching NG911.
By the end of the meeting, there was one concern burning in my mind that had been left unaddressed. I posed it as a question privately to one of the panel members: "What kind of dialog is happening among 911 leaders about the psychological impacts of NG911 on the person of the dispatcher?" This dedicated 911 leader offered a sincere response: very little formal thought has been given to this concern. This is deeply disturbing to me, and it should be to you too.
As noted in my August Update below, NENA is launching a new Working Group on 911 Acute, Traumatic, and Chronic Stress. As a clinician-member of this group, I will work to assure that the psychological challenges of NG911 are defined, and that NENA offers guidance to North American PSAPs in how to equip dispatchers to deal with the unprecedented stress that new multimedia caller experiences will create. If we do not start planning NOW to prepare dispatchers for the impacts of watching and listening to real-time death as they fight to save lives at the console, the toll in the 911 Community will be severe.
When I think of my sister, recently retired Deborah Achtenberg, ENP, this issue becomes very personal. Imagining that she was still a front-line dispatcher, would I want her subjected to a regular diet of the kind of traumatic experience NG911 will likely dish up? No. Yet, if her PSAP leaders provided her and her 911 peers with carefully designed stress tools and protocols to handle NG911 trauma, I could breathe more easily knowing that she could protect her personal health.
My invitation to you: tell me what you think: do you share my concern? Do you want to lend your voice to future conversations and policy making on this? Please help us as we support federal and state government leaders in addressing this critical NG911 issue. I will respond personally to all email sent to Jim@911Training.net. Thank you!
MINUTE FOR August, 2010: The Institute's Work Continues to Grow!
On the Training Front... In August we saw our July goals (see below) becoming reality. Jim launched our new 2 Day "Survive & Thrive: 911 Stress and Relationships!" in Midland, Michigan. We had a terrific group of dispatchers--sharp newbies, mid-career folks and some long-time veterans. Every "student" offered great contributions and their outstanding reviews affirmed that we're on track with this new Survive & Thrive course--we hoped it would take you to an entirely different level in understanding and dealing with Acute, Traumatic, and Chronic stress) AND PSAP Relationships. They agreed! Rebuilt from the ground up based on powerful concepts Jim introduced at the May, 2010 NENA Conference, this 16 hour course can you ahead of the curve anticipating Michigan's upcoming mandatory training requirements on stress management.
In 911 Advocacy... (Training is good, but it's NOT ENOUGH!) We're also thrilled to now publicly confirm that the National Emergency Number Association has launched the NENA Working Group on 911 Stress.This group's task is to build policies and an educational campaign empowering YOU and all your 911 colleagues to prevent, manage, and overcome the toxic impacts of acute, traumatic, and Chronic 911 Stress. Our special thanks to Immediate Past President Craig Whittington and NENA Staffer Rick Jones, NENA Operations Issues Director for hearing our concerns and responding with this formal and broad-reaching leadership initiative. The initiative is "near and dear" to the heart of the Institute and our mission!
Help us make a difference! If you'd like to join Jim and other NENA members from the USA and Canada on the 911 Stress Working Group now being formed, e-mail Rick today! Or to simply "weigh in" on the topic, sharing your views with Jim call him @ 231.881.1434.
MINUTE for July, 2010: Moving Beyond Stress Training
By popular request, I will be launching our new Two Day Survive and Thrive course in August in Michigan, and we invite agencies throughout North America to host this course. But successfully informing the 220,000 dispatchers (in the U.S.A. alone!) about the risks of 911 traumatic stress will take much more than training. That's why we've also been working hard to help PSAP leaders and NENA members recognize the need to intensify education on PTSD and other stress-related problems in 911 Centers. An all-out education campaign reaching every PSAP leader is needed. I am thrilled to report that NENA has affirmed the importance of such a campaign. More to come on this in the months to come.
MINUTE for June, 2010: National NENA Conference a Quality Experience
Changing of the Guard. There were many highlights at the Conference in Indianapolis. Craig Whittington, ENP, stepped down after a successful term as NENA's 2009-2010 NENA President as incoming President Steve O'Conor, ENP, was sworn in. Thank you, Craig for serving all of us so well! And congratulations, Steve!
If you couldn't make it NENA 2010, check out more highlights including YouTube videos here. Also in Indy, I met with Rick Jones, NENA Operations Issues Director, 1st Vice President Rick Galway, ENP, and a cadre of Michigan 911 Leaders to explore the PTSD initiative discussed above (see Minute 1). Visit our site regularly for updates on progress!
MINUTE for May, 2010: Michigan NENA Conference Also Outstanding! Emergency Communications Professionals from around Michigan, joined by Craig Whittington, ENP, counting down the final days of his reign as NENA President enjoyed for several days of excellent presentations, networking, and support at the 2010 Michigan NENA Conference in Lansing. Jim Marshall of 911 Training Institute presented two sessions: "C'mon: We can do Better than This! Detoxing 911 Relationships" and "PTSD in the PSAP: 911 Centers as Hotbeds of Psychological Trauma". The response from dispatchers to Jim's presentations was very positive. He stated: "I felt incredibly encouraged by their support to push on in educating dispatch professionals about trauma. They related strongly to this information! Their expressed need for more knowledge about traumatic stress in the PSAP has deepened my commitment to the 'EMDR for 911 Campaign'." (For more information on this national effort, click here.)
The Institute applauds Michigan NENA President Karen Chadwick, ENP and her planning committee for an incredibly well-run conference. Jim added: "I highly urge all dispatchers to attend their state NENA conferences and become active in the organization. You can help share the future of the emergency communications profession by getting involved in NENA!"
MINUTE for April, 2010: This Spring has been busy Building LifeBridges to Suicidal Callers!
Jim launched the Spring training tour on March 3 and 4, 2010 serving dispatchers from Brown County and surrounding Wisconsin areas. On March 29 and 30, LifeBridges came to Traverse City, Michigan, followed by Lansing, MI on April 19 and 21, and Auburn Heights MI on April 20 (Oakland Community College Dispatch Academy). Most recently Jim returned to Green Bay by request of Brown County Interim Director, Shelly Nackers who stated that enthusiasm among the March course participants prompted many additional requests for this course.
MINUTE for March, 2010: LifeBridges to Become a Two Day Course!
911 Training Institute has carefully reviewed the results of our student evaluations and are thrilled by the response to LifeBridges. By popular request, we have decided to make this core curriculum course a two day experience. This extended format will allow us to include even more great experiential training including new digital audio examples of suicide calls modeling outstanding 911 responses. We will also include an optional critical incident stress debriefing to help attending dispatchers work through recent or lingering traumatic 911 call experiences.
MINUTE for February, 2010: 911 Institute forms Advisory Council
We have had an extraordinary response to our invitation for dispatchers to join 911 Training Institute's Advisory Board which will launch soon. This advisory board will join together dispatch leaders from around the country in the effort to build better policies, processes, and training for 911 telecommunicators managing suicide and high-stress calls. To learn more about the topic areas we will cover click on the For Best Practice and For Your Health tabs above.
The Council membership is selected from among all stakeholders in the 911 Community including front-line dispatchers, PSAP directors, training coordinators, supervisors, and any emergency responders or mental health experts concerned with creating best practice in 911 response to suicidal callers and supporting the mental health of dispatchers who serve them. Council work will be done via email, Skype (as needed) and by phone. If you'd like to join the Advisory Council, email Jim Marshall.
