Wausau Fire Department working to help employees with mental health – WSAW

WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAW) – The Wausau Fire Department is working to make sure mental health, wellness, and staffing shortages are a top priority for the department.

This comes after Chief Bob Barteck, reviewed the fire department and asked staff about the things they would like to see changed.

“Fire and EMS service is an extremely stressful job,” said Chief Barteck. “They can witness a lot of tragedy throughout their career. They work very long hours.”

Chief Barteck said there is a direct correlation between the number of hours worked and a decline in mental health.

“And in our trade the more hours you work, it’s the exhaustion level, it’s the higher call volumes you see during that period of time,” said Chief Barteck.

Barteck encourages his staff to speak up when they are experiencing a decline in mental health.

“So it’s a mutual understanding between our management and our staff that we need to address this in any way we can,” said Barteck.

As the firefighters and paramedics continue to deal with tragedies, they, too, have to cope.

“Most of us keep it in and sometimes we don’t always let that out or discuss it. We are getting better here at Wausau with that,” said Battalion Chief Tim Bingham.

The fire department started a physical wellness program complete with a personal trainer to help staff with their mental health and wellness.

“Every day each firefighter here is allowed 1 hour and 15 minutes of physical fitness time,” said Barteck.

The Wausau Fire Department also added 3 chaplains to help its staff.

“Their main role is here for the staff support. And our staff may connect that chaplain and find a great resource there or they may prefer to see one of the counselors there through our employee assistance program,” said Barteck.

One chaplain will be assigned to each fire station.

The Wausau Fire Department is also offering peer support and a member assistance program for its staff.

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