B.C.’s first responders at the breaking point
Province’s drug problem taking serious toll on already over-stressed workforce
Incessant overdose calls and multiple drug deaths during shifts are taking a serious toll on the mental health of B.C. paramedics, according to their union.
Bob Parkinson, director of health and wellness for the Ambulance Paramedics and Emergency Dispatchers of B.C., said even before the current fentanyl-related overdose crisis, paramedics were feeling strained while responding daily to life-and-death situations.
“We’re already an over-stressed workforce with little or no support and we are seeing more and more effects of this,” he said.
“We’re getting to the point that it’s becoming a crisis and this fentanyl stuff is just adding to it.”
With an overdose crisis across the province, paramedics in small communities are responding to calls and reviving friends’ kids or handling multiple overdoses involving casual drug users at parties, Parkinson said.
Parkinson said depression and anxiety are the most common mental health issues among paramedics, but some are dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder or struggling with family problems and their own addiction issues.
He’s worried the workforce will lose quality women and men.
“You know how we cope as a first responder or a paramedic or a dispatcher — we go ’til we break and then it’s too late,” he said.
Both Parkinson and Bronwyn Barter, president of the union, are pleading for more resource support and for government to quickly respond to an ORH report recommending an increase in B.C. Emergency Health Services’ fleet size.
“We need the public to support us and push our politicians and policy-makers to deal with this,” Parkinson said.
Barter said paramedics are accustomed to responding to life-and-death situations, but the overdose crisis has changed the nature of their work.
“They’re basically going from call to call and they’re not even processing what they’re going through,” she said. “It’s just getting worse and on top of that we had resource issues prior to the fentanyl crisis being declared back in April.”
On Nov. 26, the provincial government announced $5 million in funding for B.C. EHS to support paramedics and dispatchers during the overdose crisis.
The injection of cash was used for such measures as putting medical-support units in high-overdose locations, providing paramedics with bicycles and ATVs and bolstering supervisory support to assist with triaging.
Linda Lupini, president of the B.C. Emergency Health Services, said the impact of the overdose crisis on B.C.’s paramedics is “absolutely a concern” for her organization.
“This kind of work is really difficult,” she said. “Just the repeated, cumulative stress of being in a pressure situation over and over again where you’re really having minutes to save a life is very difficult.”
Lupini said BCEHS implemented a comprehensive program for critical-incident stress management before the crisis, which led to 87 on-call peers being trained to help fellow paramedics deal with stressors.
In response to the crisis, managers have been visiting paramedics to check in on their mental health.
“They’re making sure they’re OK, they’re being a little more proactive about asking them whether they’re tired, whether they want to continue working, whether they need to reach out to any of the peers,” said Lupini.
Paramedics and dispatchers showing signs of acute stress are referred to a counselling program and have access to 39 psychologists connected to the organization for trauma counselling.
Jennifer Leyen, director of special care services for WorkSafeBC, said the “cumulative impact” of the crisis on first responders also has her organization’s attention.
“When you go to a couple overdose situations, it may not be that difficult,” Leyen said. “But if you’re doing month after month of this? That’s where I’m concerned and our first responders who are doing this day in and day out, I believe that’s worrisome.”