Six week suicide prevention training starts at Phoenix Fire Department

PHOENIX - The Phoenix Fire Department is implementing a new department-wide mental health training program after four firefighters committed suicide during a seven month span last year .

The six-week training plan, which includes suicide awareness education, started Monday, approximately one year and a month after Corey Nelson, a Phoenix firefighter, killed himself.

Three other firefighters, including a retired firefighter, had killed themselves during the previous seven months.

“Suicides are preventable,” said firefighter John Prato, a member of the Mental Health Task Force who helped develop the special training program.

THE TRAINING

Prato said the training is among 16 recommendations the Mental Health Task Force created last November, in an effort to promote mental health and prevent future suicides within the department.

The goal of the program, he said, is to increase suicide awareness, teach members how to recognize warning signs and suicide risk factors, educate crews about the support resources available, and to discuss and analyze the culture within the department.

“A lot has been said about changing our culture,” Prato said to a group of battalion chiefs and fire captains during a “train the trainer” class last week. “We really need to analyze what our culture is – what we’re doing well, and what we could do better.”

During the training, members will also watch video testimonials from Kathy Mayberry, whose brother, Phoenix firefighter, Mike Callahan, committed suicide sixteen years ago , and Tim Smith, a retired Phoenix firefighter, who watched his partner struggle with alcohol abuse during his time at the department.

The training also coincides with the launch of a new firefighter-support website, Firestrong .

THE WEBSITE

The website is filled with self-help assessments, online chat tools, links to peer support programs, links to online chat tools, and other resources and tools intended to empower firefighters to help themselves in various areas of their life.

The public, including fire crews in other states, will be able to access the website, but portions of the site will be password protected.