‘Nobody could imagine the stuff that we see.’ Mental health of Nova Scotia’s volunteer firefighters subject of new study

Joe MacDonald has seen some horrible things in his 32 years as a volunteer firefighter.

“Nobody could imagine the stuff that we see,” the Barneys River fire chief said. “It’s very powerful.”

MacDonald said it helps to talk things out with colleagues and friends who have dealt with similar situations.

“There’s still this stigma about this too,” MacDonald recounted in an interview Wednesday from his service station in Barneys River.

“People don’t want to admit that scenes bother them. … (They) bottle it up inside them and it fills the box (and at some point) it’s going to boil over.”

While there are support programs such as the critical incident stress management team, which visits fire departments across the province, we can do better by our volunteer firefighters, said Robin Campbell, a member of that team and a PhD student at Dalhousie University’s faculty of health.

Robin Campbell, a #PhDinHealth student, is using her experience to work towards better mental health support for volunteer firefighters across Nova Scotia. 🚨 Read more about her story: https://t.co/Qjz66EtE5A and follow along with her journey @SoundtheSirenNS! @RobinD_Campbell pic.twitter.com/Q8m84r4skj
— Dal Health (@DalHealth) October 30, 2019

“It’s very different to develop support or services for somebody who’s employed as opposed to somebody who’s doing this as a volunteer, when it’s not their day to day job,” said Campbell, who was a volunteer firefighter in Wolfville for 10 years, in an interview Tuesday.

For example, changes in workers’ compensation programs for first responders with post-traumatic stress disorder came into effect in October.

But Campbell said it’s not clear how that will work for firefighters who work for volunteer organizations. They must raise their own funds for basic things such as equipment “so when you think about all these other services and things, it’s more complicated.”

She hopes to help policy-makers create programs more tailored for the volunteer sector as part of her PhD work. Starting in the new year, Campbell will work with three rural fire departments (she’s not identifying them) to document their everyday experiences through interviews and photography.

“The hope is that by being able to show images, (we will) create that awareness and be able to share some of these stories and get a better understanding of the entire occupational environment, everything that’s going on for a volunteer.”

Campbell said fire departments have long used photography as a tool for incident debriefing - many departments have a dedicated photographer.

The images taken by those photographers, as well as those taken by other members at the firehouse or between incidents will be incorporated into her project, which is called Sound the Siren.

While the impact of stress and trauma on a firefighter’s life will be a major plank in her work, Campbell also simply hopes to raise awareness of an often-misunderstood volunteer effort.

She joined the Wolfville fire department in November 2006 and the idea for her PhD work grew out of those experiences.

“I was 20 years old . . . so I didn’t really understand the whole (mental health) aspect of it,” Campbell recounted. “I thought it would be a really neat way to give back to my community, all the adrenaline that comes from getting out there and getting to help people. The whole idea around to save lives and protect property, it’s really exciting and I loved it.”

MacDonald said he would welcome any improvements in support for volunteer firefighters.

“There could never be enough programs for this stuff."

As for the toll it’s taken on him over the years, MacDonald said that while he never talks about specific incidents at home with family, “they can see it, they see it has affected you. Most of it for a short time but over the years you can see it where it’s weighing on you.”

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