Exposure to line of duty stress creates a risk for potentially severe stress reactions in first responders. This class will focus on “best practices” for addressing stress reactions in public safety workers, and will introduce the core components of an evidence-based self-care and peer support framework called Stress First Aid.

SFA is a self-care and peer support model that comprises a set of supportive actions designed to help emergency responders assist each other in reducing the negative impacts of stress. SFA was designed originally to support military personnel, and subsequently tailored to support structural firefighters, Wildland firefighters, EMS personnel, law enforcement, and Amtrak personnel. This method of assisting a co-worker undergoing stress recognizes that disasters and “critical incidents” are not the only stressors that professionals in these fields face and is therefore based on acknowledgement that stress can be ongoing and cumulative, resulting from multiple sources.