Helpers forced to face trauma

EMERGENCY responders no doubt have one of the toughest jobs on the books.

Whether it be attending to a horrific car crash or other tragic incident, it’s the brave men and woman in uniform that are first on the scene to assist people in their time of need.

But along with the satisfaction of coming to the aid of the community and potentially saving lives, there’s a dark side to the job.

Far North Ambulance senior operations supervisor Manjeet Singh said the role had different effects on each individual officer.

“On a personal level, it’s quite hard,” he said.

“You’ve got to detach yourself from the scene as much as you can – I can only speak from my personal experience.

“You can’t tell how any individual job is going to affect you and what trigger it’s going to have.

“It could stay with you for a while too, you don’t know.

“You may not feel it on the day, but somewhere down the track you go to a similar job and something about the job or the smells or the scenario could trigger some other things.

“You just have to look after each other and look after yourself as best we can.”

Mr Singh said the Queensland Ambulance Service offered a peer support priority one program, with counsellors on call 24/7.

Similarly, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) FNQ A/Assistant Commissioner Adam Gwin said every day on the job presented a different challenge.

“All emergency first responders are absolutely unique people where they put their own lives on hold to go and assist other people,” he said.

“They’re a wonderful bunch of people and I am most certainly very proud to be standing alongside of them.

“Everybody is subjected to tragedy and certainly within QFES alone we have support systems in place that works at a local area and we can expand that out as required.”

YOU’VE GOT TO DETACH YOURSELF FROM THE SCENE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN — I CAN ONLY SPEAK FROM MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. FAR NORTH AMBULANCE SENIOR OPERATIONS SUPERVISOR MANJEET SINGH