Dr. Renee Thornton, the founder of Pathfinder Resilience, discusses public safety wellness and enhancing workforce performance. She gives a practical definition of “resilience,” outlines the eight dimensions of wellbeing, and talks about actions you can take to make your center’s culture more positive.
Dr. Violet Rymshaw, CEO of Innovative Writing and former emergency dispatcher for police, fire, and EMS, discusses her research on the distinct needs of emergency dispatcher wellness. She talks about stressful calls and center culture as well as small steps to take toward improving the profession overall.
Public safety communicators (e.g., 911, police, fire, and ambulance call-takers), like many other public safety personnel (e.g., police, fire) suffer operational stress injuries (OSIs) that are too often hidden, and at rates that are higher than the general population. Unfortunately, there are very little data for OSI rates in Canadian communicators, and no known pan-Canadian studies focusing on organizational culture and its potential influence on OSIs, within the communicator context.