JACKSONVILLE, Fla —
Help is here for those who help us in an emergency.
A Jacksonville behavioral health system is launching a new peer support program to battle alarming statistics related to suicide. First Coast News brings you this story on Friday, National First Responders Day.
Law enforcement officers and firefighters are more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty, reports the CDC. This new program means first responders can get help from people who know what it's like to deal with emergencies every day.
"If there's a particularly bad incident, a lot of times children, anything with children like ramps things up for us really," said local firefighter Max Schafer. "It's hard for us to walk away from without some kind of impact."
Schafer has been a firefighter for over 30 years, but his past struggles with alcoholism before sobriety almost ended his career.
"I was kind of at a breaking point," he said. "And so my coworkers basically sat me down and more or less kind of had an intervention. This was before we had the peer support stuff."
That peer support was a turning point for Schafer. A large-scale peer support system made up of current and former first responders and military members is what LSF Health Systems is launching. It will cover nearly two dozen Florida counties.
"With this peer model, they're going to be able to know that who they're talking with has walked a mile in their shoes," said Dr. Christine Cauffield, CEO of LSF Health Systems.
Cauffield says people are interested in the peer support and that their website has gotten over 300,000 hits.
Schafer says the next generation of firefighters wants it too.
"They're ready to ask for help, which is good," Schafer said. "It will prevent a lot of issues that we're kind of dealing with now."