Numerous Lake Fire Departments Participate In “Critical Stress Training”

More than two-dozen personnel from lake area fire districts gathered in Rolla this past week for what’s being called “critical incident stress debriefing peer training.”

Sunrise Beach Deputy Chief of Training Rob Oldenwald says the need for such training has really become necessary over the past several years.

“It’s about the importance of it is understanding the mental health of all our first responders that respond to traumatic events, because everybody deals with a little bit differently.”

Oldenwald also says the key to preventing the stresses from overcoming first responders is early detection that there may be a problem.

“Depression and suicide is becoming prevalent with first responders, similar to PTSD with the military.”

Fire department personnel from the Sunrise Beach, Osage Beach and Gravois districts were part of the training which was conducted in Rolla.