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I don't talk about my work on here much for a few reasons. I work as an emergency dispatcher/call taker for the Fire Paramedic service. Aka. 9-1-1 for EMS/Fire emergencies. (A thread...)
Now let me preface the rest of this thread by saying, my views are not representative of my employer, I am not sharing any personal or private information and this is all based on my own personal experiences and perceptions.
I don't discuss my job much here for a few reasons, privacy due to the sensitive subject matter of the work, it's not particularly happy most of the time and I don't feel it is a defining part of my identity.
I've been doing the job for 6 years, and have tried to absorb and understand a lot of the hows and whys of EMS, Fire and emergency services in general. To be honest it's a bit like finding out how sausage is made, and there's no unlearning it.
Trauma & tragedy is an inherent part of the day to day subject matter. When I found out I was getting hired on, coming off of piecemeal work and E.I., I gave myself between 5-10 years withstanding the job. I figured the stress and mental strain would wear me out in that time.
There have been some calls that bothered me. I can still recall some very unpleasant memories of some I have taken. It's a terribly helpless feeling guiding people through potentially life saving instructions while they go through one of the worst moments of their lives.
One of the hardest things about it can be knowing just how much misery, trauma, violence and straight up bad things happen in our community on a daily basis. It's fatiguing, disheartening and upsetting. It has worn on me.
I think I'm fairly good at combatting those feelings by taking care of my mental and physical health as best I can, volunteering and being in the community to see some of the amazing people and orgs we have and just trying to enjoy the happier parts of our community and life.
Even in writing that last paragraph it's difficult for me to not feel guilty about taking care of myself when the people I am supposed to help are likely going through much more raw and direct trauma/violence/circumstances on a continuing basis.
That, perhaps has been maybe the hardest part to deal with for me. Emergency services are great at helping people in emergencies. What about after? What about before? Some emergencies are preventable.
The scope and depth of the help emergency services provide is very finite. By their very nature they're structured to be that way. There's no one else to call, you call for the only people you can in an emergency.
This isn't meant to disparage any of my EMS/Fire colleagues. I believe this is more of a systemic or structural issue. The purpose of these services is to stop the emergency. Put out the fire, extricate the patient, defibrillate the patients heart, give the patient Narcan etc.
