An ambitious grassroots campaign designed to highlight the heavy toll Post Traumatic Stress Disorder takes on emergency service workers is heading coast-to-coast in Canada this spring.
With attention focused on military men and women’s mental health, the Heroes Are Human PTSD Awareness Tour is visiting 48 cities where it hopes to kickstart a conversation within the ranks of Canada’s emergency services.
Estimates show that as many as one-in-four emergency services personnel -- including police officers, paramedics and firefighters -- are affected by PTSD.
Canadian actor Enrico Colantoni says he joined the campaign as national spokesperson after meeting many first responders dealing with PTSD while he was a star on the TV police drama “Flashpoint.”
“We take it for granted what these people do, we call 911, and somebody comes to the door and we expect them to take care of us, but we don’t really realize what they may or may not witness throughout their days, throughout their careers,” Colantoni told Canada AM Thursday.
Frontline workers often see tragic events in their daily work lives. The psychological burden can sometimes lead to issues of alcoholism and other substance abuse. The problems are “swept under the rug,” Colantoni said, in part due to stigma surrounding mental illness.
“It’s sort of absurd to think that you can just make that adjustment,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with people suffering from any kind of trauma, but we can’t not talk about it.”
The cross-country tour, run by the Tema Conter Memorial Trust, begins in St. John’s on May 5 and will travel coast to coast, before wrapping up in Toronto on July 18.
The Trust will host two-hour education events to highlight the impact of psychological stressors of PTSD on frontline correctional, emergency and military personnel.
Colantoni said the campaign will host events in urban centres and small towns.
“A lot of it happens in small towns, especially when you have say, one police officer serving 60 people and something traumatic happens -- it suddenly becomes a community that’s affected by this, it’s not isolated to someone’s family,” Colantoni said.
PTSD survivors will share their stories at a media launch event in Vaughan, Ont., Thursday. For more information about the campaign, click here.
