The Murrells Inlet Garden City Fire Rescue Department is giving it’s first responders mental health training.
A study the Suicide Prevention Resource Center published, reports 19 percent of responders have suicidal thoughts and 65 percent are haunted by a traumatic work experience.
The Low Country Firefighter Support Team will conduct the training, which is largely peer based. According to the support team, they want to remind responders it is okay to not be okay, but not to stay that way.
All of the responders News13 spoke with are excited about the training and said something like this is a long time coming.
“We are inherently fixers,” EMS Chief Jerry Howerton said. “That is what draws us to this job and when we think about something that is causing us issues or an inability to cope with something or deal with it, we feel like if we come out and speak about it, that will make us inherently weak in our profession.”
For more on the Low Country Fighter Support Team, click here.