Executive Chief Officer Leadership I (ECO I)

ECO-106 - The Challenges of Building an Accessible Behavioral Health Program in Modern Fire Departments

Thursday, August 25, 2022

10:30 AM – 11:45 AM

Location: Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, 302 AB

Sponsored By

Speaker(s)

David E. Coatney, EFO, CFO, CEM

Agency Director/CEO
Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX)
College Station, Texas

Slides
Dominique Artis, Master Firefighter, Master ARFF, Fire Officer I, Fire Instructor I, and USAR Task Force Leader

Fire Chief
Dallas Fire-Rescue Department
Dallas, Texas

Dallas Fire-Rescue made incredible strides in building an accessible behavioral health program following a member's suicide in 2017.
The presentation will include a brief overview of existing behavioral health challenges within the first responder community, specifically fire departments. The body of the presentation will address the events leading up to the suicide of a member of the Dallas Fire-Rescue Department and overview the nearly year long process to develop a program, which was designed to address various behavioral health challenges. The presentation will outline labor/management collaboration, accompanied by community support to bring a program from idea to implementation.

Learning Objectives:

The participant will be able to clearly identify the challenges associated with behavioral health concerns across the first responder community.
The participant will learn how to apply positive labor/management relationships to develop new programs within a first responder organization.
The participant will learn how to evaluate current behavioral health programs internal or external to their organization, accompanied by a description of how to create a program for their organization.