CANINES • Program aims to comfort first responders

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The stresses of the job have consequences. Studies have shown that occurrences of post-traumatic stress disorder, binge drinking and depression are higher among firefighters than the general population.

Stowell said suicide rates among firefighters have been on the rise across the nation for the past nine years. That hit close to home last month when a Rancho Santa Fe Protection District captain who had worked in the fire service for 31 years took his own life after what the agency said was a yearslong battle with work-related PTSD.

“As fire chiefs we want to do whatever we can to never have our members experience that loss that Rancho Santa Fe felt,” said Stowell, who spoke at the captain’s memorial service earlier this month.

Stowell and Picone acknowledged there’s a challenge fire departments face in helping their staff cope: the stigma of needing help.

“The stigma is still real,” Picone said.

“For our firefighters, lifeguards, dispatchers, reaching out is sometimes difficult, as it is for the rest of society, but much more for us first responders,” Picone said. “We typically are the helpers, not the ones who need help.”

He and Stowell hope something as simple as a chaplain and a dog brings some comfort and will cause people to open up — “anything that can provide the comfort to allow somebody to lose their inhibition, or lose the anxiety, or relax enough, to forget that you are (wearing a) superhero shield,” Picone said.

“It’s OK to be not OK,” he said.

Chaplain Betsy Salzman said her four-legged partner,

Genoa, has been a welcome addition to the fire department.

“We have not met a firefighter who has not gotten down (to pet her),” Salzman said.

Recently, Salzman and the Labrador retriever stood with firefighters as they waited in line to get tested for COVID-19. “I don’t know what’s more stressful for us these days,” Salzman said.

Picone said he envisions the program expanding if other chaplains are able to take dogs into their homes.