Elsevier

Aggression and Violent Behavior

Volume 21, March–April 2015, Pages 1-4
Aggression and Violent Behavior

Suicide prevention in fire service: The Houston Fire Department (HFD) model

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2014.12.012Get rights and content

Abstract

Suicides among public safety personnel (law enforcement, firefighters, and emergency medical services) are a growing concern across departments with occupational, mental health, and fitness for duty implications. Research on this topic has mostly focused on the law enforcement community. With an alarming rate of suicides among firefighters, the Houston Fire Department (HFD) endeavored to develop a suicide prevention program to address this issue. This article captures the history of suicide within the Houston Fire Department and summarizes each phase of the HFD Suicide Prevention Program in its development, purpose, methodology, and implementation. Results of this program and implications for this community are discussed.

Introduction

To date, most research in the field of police and public safety psychology has been in the areas of stress and mental health in law enforcement (Sheehan and Van Hasselt, 2003, Toch, 2002). In fact, investigations and anecdotal reports dating back nearly a quarter of a century (Richard and Feil, 1976, Steinberg and McEvoy, 1974) attest to the problem of stress and its deleterious sequelae in police officers as well as their families (DePue, 1981, Kannady, 1993). A portion of the research in police psychology has focused on suicide in that population. According to the National P.O.L.I.C.E. Suicide Foundation (2006), the number of police deaths due to suicide is 2 to 3 times the number of line of duty deaths among law enforcement agencies and emergency workers. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2004) indicate that between the years of 1992 to 2001, police officers accounted for the highest rate of workplace suicide among all occupations.

Comparatively, not much research has gone into the effects of stress in the lives of emergency medical services workers and firefighters. Only recently have emergency services received serious attention from the scientific community. However, most of this research is focused on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Del Ben, Scotti, Chen, & Fortson, 2006) and Cardiovascular Disease (Geibe et al., 2008, Kales et al., 2007). While these issues are important and prevalent in the firefighter population, the issue of suicide is also vital to consider.

Section snippets

Suicides within the Houston Fire Department

The Houston Fire Department is one of the largest fire departments in the country employing nearly 4000 active duty Firefighters. There are 21 districts within their coverage area and over 90 fire stations. Between 1984 and 2007 eight suicides were committed by active duty firefighters in the Houston Fire Department (HFD). However, the frequent occurrence of these events became more apparent when three active duty firefighters took their lives between 2005 and 2007. Also, between the years of

Purpose

The purpose of Phase I was to gather input and ideas from active duty firefighters on suicide in the fire service and to learn what they would like to see from the department regarding mental health issues.

Method

Once the program had been approved by command staff in 2007, a team of nine active duty firefighters were identified and asked to become a part of the HFD Suicide Prevention Team. These members were sent to a special training on suicide prevention in Austin, Texas and attended an additional

Results and discussion

As indicated above, the Suicide Prevention Program was successful in educating a large majority of the HFD firefighters about the history of suicide in the department, how to recognize suicide risks among firefighters, and the mental health resources available to members. In addition, it resulted in the creation of a more coordinated team (FSN) intended to address the mental health needs of HFD members. But the real goal of a suicide prevention program within a fire department is to reduce the

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the contributions of Tom Hendrix (HFD) and Sue Nash, Ph.D. (Baylor College of Medicine) for their help with the project development. We also acknowledge the vision and leadership of former Fire Chief Phil Boriskie and current Fire Chief Terry Garrison for supporting this program.

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There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

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Special thanks Before his dream could be fully realized, Stephen Pierrel, Ph.D. died of cancer in 2008. We would like to recognize the sacrifice and support of his family. We would also like to acknowledge his tireless efforts to the Houston Fire Department (HFD) and for his wisdom and courage to start the HFD Suicide Prevention Program. Thank you for showing all of us the true meaning of serving with courage, commitment and compassion.

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