MIAMI TOWNSHIP, Ohio — In the midst of “Who Dey” chants and tailgate toasts, Amy Foley and Lt. Jim Petry of the Tri-State Peer Support Team got the chance to share their mission with Cincinnati fans.
With the scene of Damar Hamlin’s Monday Night Football collapse still fresh in many attendees’ minds, one of the city’s most popular fan tailgates, Bengal Jim’s Before the Roar Tailgate Experience, invited them to explain the toll these emergencies can take on first responders. In the weeks since, fans have raised thousands for the organization to help provide mental health care for first responders across the region.
What You Need To Know
- Tri-State Peer Support Team connects first responders to mental health resources
- Tailgaters have helped raise thousands for the regional organization
- First responders suffer from higher rates of depression, PTSD and suicide
- Mental health symptoms may take weeks or months to develop after a traumatic event
When Petry is on the job at Miami Township Fire and EMS, some days, he says, there’s barely a second to spare. There can be anywhere from two to 20 calls for service a shift and Petry said it’s hard to know which ones will stick in his mind in the weeks that follow.
“If family’s present, that’s emotional. This is a tragic event for them and we come in and we try to mitigate whatever we can,” he said. “Sometimes you don’t get any of that processing time.”
Miami Township Fire and EMS personnel practice a cardiac arrest response. (Spectrum News 1/Michelle Alfini)
Petry said he saw the toll it was taking on himself and his fellow staff and after a Clermont County Sheriff’s deputy died on duty in 2019, other departments across the region started reaching out for help as well.
Foley, who was already working to build a mental health support program for Clermont County, saw an opportunity to expand that system as she formed partnerships with firefighters and emergency personnel in Cincinnati and the west suburbs.
“We were onto something,” she said. “We needed to discover who the culturally competent clinicians were, who could treat our first responders.”
What came next was the Tri-State Peer Support Team, a network among departments in Greater Cincinnati to share mental health resources, provide assistance when they can, and refer first responders to clinicians and other professionals who can help get them on the path towards recovery.
“We get them the help they need so they can get back out there and keep doing that job,” Foley said.
Lt. Petry shares resources with Miami Township Officer Lt. Hirsch. (Spectrum News 1/Michelle Alfini)
According to the CDC, law enforcement officers and firefighters are more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty and EMS providers have a suicide rate 1.39 times higher than the public. Even one in four public safety telecommunicators have symptoms of PTSD or depression.
To Foley, the trauma that takes them there was on full display as an entire stadium and national broadcast watched emergency medical personnel respond to Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest.
“Watching the team and seeing their faces, you could see that this trauma had hugely impacted them,” she said.
Foley said it could take weeks or months before those on the field come to terms with the trauma they may have suffered and start reaching out for help. That’s why she believes it’s so important that groups like hers are available and prepared to help beyond the immediate aftermath.
With Hamlin’s recovery progressing quickly, she said she’s happy to have the opportunity to discuss the role of the first responders and what they may have experienced that night and every day at work. Foley hopes that won’t soon be forgotten.
“Talking about us gave what we were doing a lot of credibility out there and people were very kind and generous,” she said.
