New world-first guidelines seek to tackle the human cost to first responders and the high rates of PTSD.
At first, Elisabeth Goh thought her anxiety, insomnia and short temper were about everything except what they were really about. She couldn’t sleep because her bed was too hard. She found herself unable to concentrate in meetings or skipping them altogether because she knew she’d lose her cool at someone. Her closest relationships were becoming fraught.So she started drinking more alcohol and working constantly. It meant there was less space to think.
The next morning, getting coffee with another friend who wanted to check in on her, it happened again. She doesn’t recall it, but she went outside and tried to barricade herself in a bathroom stall because she felt unsafe.Goh began volunteering with the Hornsby Heights Rural Fire Brigade in leafy northern Sydney more than a decade ago, while studying a law degree.
PTSD can result from an acute event – being in a bad car accident, for instance – or chronic exposure to trauma, as is often the case for emergency workers, who are twice as likely as the general population to experience mental health problems.Last week, the Black Dog Institute and the University of NSW launched updated guidelines for the treatment of PTSD among emergency workers.
Harvey and his colleagues realised they were seeing people too late. “On average it was eight years between when their symptoms began and when they first sought treatment.”
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