DOC EXAMINES PTSD PAIN AMONG PARAMEDICS
First responders pay the price for helping others
When director Kevin Eastwood was filming the TV documentary series Emergency Room Life and Death at VGH he met some paramedics, but he didn’t really know them. It wasn’t until he talked to a friend about making a documentary about the opiate crisis that he discovered there was a lot of pain associated with PTSD within the paramedic ranks.
“I spoke to a doctor on the Downtown Eastside who was a friend and she actually said: ‘Yeah, but that story is changing so quickly,’” said Eastwood of the opiate crisis.
Eastwood said his friend pointed out the fluidity of the crisis and how much can change in the six months from shooting to finishing the film. Instead, she suggested he look at the impact the crisis was having on first-responders. He did just that and now has the new film, After the Sirens. It premieres on the CBC Docs POV show on April 8 at 9 p.m.
Eastwood moved forward with this journey by turning back to the people he met shooting Emergency Room Life and Death at VGH. It was through these discussions that he was pointed in the direction of Clive Derbyshire, a paramedic in Vancouver who was dealing with PTSD and addictions.
“I knew Clive from filming Emergency Room,” said Eastwood. “I didn’t know him well, but I knew him by face and we had been friendly in the emergency room. I had always seen him as being this charismatic, attractive, really good at his job, really confident, good paramedic. To learn what he was actually struggling with on the inside, well, I had no idea. So that opened my eyes.”
What is also eye-opening are the statistics surrounding first-responders. The suicide rates among paramedics are five times the national average. The film states one in four paramedics have PTSD, but experts think that number could be higher, as not every paramedic reports they’re suffering.
The film concentrates on a few paramedics. Each has suffered a trauma that has led to PTSD.
There are three common PTSD triggers: There is the moral injury where something has fundamentally altered the paramedic’s take on right and wrong. There is the incident involving a child and there is the incident that involves someone they know. Derbyshire was affected greatly by the latter. He attended a scene and discovered the victim, whom he had to pronounce dead, was a close friend. That experience led to an increase in drinking, which in turn, led to drugs.
“I was more interested in getting home and getting drunk or high,” says Derbyshire in the documentary.
The film opens with a very powerful scene in which Derbyshire and his partner head out on an overdose call into a DTES alley.
Derbyshire says to his partner: “I know this alley well.”
But that isn’t all Derbyshire said. According to Eastwood, while filming, they overheard him saying he used to shoot up in that alley. It’s that calm, matter-of-fact face of Derbyshire that Eastwood hopes will help viewers to understand that trauma can send anyone down a dismal rabbit hole.
“First of all, I would hope it would challenge any kind of pre-conceived notions people have about mental health. Not just PTSD,” said Eastwood of his film.
“I would like people to rethink their attitudes about that and that also extends to addiction. Part of the reason we selected that scene where Clive is treating the druguser on the Downtown Eastside is so you realize Clive was in that exact alleyway himself.”
According to Eastwood, Derbyshire is doing better these days and has been making a slow return to work, although strictly in an administrative role.
Derbyshire’s and the other paramedics’ stories are heartbreaking and scary, but they’re important stories to tell as we finally face the facts and realize the people who are helping others are themselves hurting.
“I think it is quite remarkable that this hasn’t been put under a microscope more,” said Eastwood of struggling paramedics. “I think it is partly because the job is so new. The job didn’t exist until the ’70s. People haven’t done the job for 30 years before. It didn’t exist, so I think now we are only becoming
aware of the ramifications of the side-effects of it now.”
Aside from the stress of the actual job, Eastwood said he was blown away by the work schedule of two 12-hour day shifts followed by two 12-hour night shifts.
“It’s crazy how this job is designed,” said Eastwood, who has also directed episodes of the crime drama Romeo Section. “Where the stakes are so high.”
Eastwood said his time on the emergency-room reality show and the fact he is on beta blockers for a heart condition helped to steel him against the rough scenes that paramedics see on a daily basis. He said what left the biggest impression were the personal stories.
“What I find hard actually is being the receptacle of these stories. There is always that human element. Wow, these people are sharing something so personal and so vulnerable,” said Eastwood. “You are telling other people’s stories so you want to make sure you are doing it correctly and accurately and with respect.”
I would hope it would challenge any kind of pre-conceived notions people have about mental health.