One of my favourite television shows when I was growing up was Emergency.
The show, which ran from 1972 to 1977, featured two paramedics, John Gage (Randolph Mantooth) and Roy DeSoto (Kevin Tighe) and their weekly adventures as paramedics with Station 51 of the Los Angeles fire department.
It was created and produced by Jack Webb and Robert A. Cinader and like their other shows Dragnet and Adam-12 the show was supposed to paint a real-life picture of what it was like to be a firefighter and/or paramedic.
In fact, writers on the show had to base their scripts taken from the actual fire department logbooks.
Given the limitations, Mantooth said network executives put on the show, namely that no one could die, or they couldn’t show blood, I’m not too sure how realistic it could be.
However, from a few conversations, I have had with firefighters they say it is the most realistic depiction of their profession from mainstream media.
At least of the action, because unlike today’s TV procedurals, the audience never get to see them outside their work setting.
Which means the audience never gets to see the toll the job takes on their emotional and mental health.
And it does take a toll.
Results from Canada’s first national survey looking at operational stress injuries among first responders such as police, paramedics, firefighters and 911 operators suggest they are much more likely to develop a mental disorder than the general population — four times more.
The research was conducted online between September 2016 and January 2017 by a group of mental health experts from across the country. It is published in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.
This is a large reason why the Alberta Critical Incident Provincial Network (ACIPN), a peer support program, exists.
The organization which you can read more about on page A5, was created in large part to deal with the aftermath of mental health issues of frontline emergency workers who responded to Fort McMurray wildfire.
From all reports, it has been successful. In a little more than a year, the ACIPN has been trained more than 300 volunteer peer counsellors and has created a hotline where emergency service workers, who are suffering from mental job-related stresses, some of them who are in crisis, can call and get help.
The problem is the initial funding which they received from Alberta Municipal Affairs is about to run out, which is why they are asking the provincial government to commit $600,000 annually so they can continue their work.
I hope they are successful because unlike in Emergency, in real life our protectors have to deal with the ramifications of going out to a call, well after they return home.
