Programs Offer Mental Health Care to First Responders
“When everyone else runs away from a situation, first responders have to run toward it.” That’s according to Ron Acierno, PhD, professor and vice chair for veteran affairs in the Louis A. Faillace, MD, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth and executive director of the UTHealth Trauma and Resilience Center.
A new program offers first responders evidence-based mental health counseling via telemedicine from behavioral health specialists with the Trauma and Resilience Center at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).
Another UTHealth program for first responders, the Heroes Helpline, also allows first responders to find help for substance use disorder through a 24/7 hotline. The toll-free helpline, 1-833-EMS-INTX (1-833-367-4689) is part of a clinical research program led by James Langabeer, PhD, EdD, MBA, and funded in part by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Both Acierno and Langabeer said the collaboration between their teams is critical.
The Department of Emergency Medicine worked closely with the Medtronic Foundation to secure funding for recruiting first responders to mental health care services. The grant will go toward hiring people with emergency medical service (EMS) experience to serve as community liaisons with local first responder agencies.
“Our mission is to deliver the highest quality emergency care to everyone and part of that includes supporting our prehospital partners who are so vital and have been dramatically impacted in many ways by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Bentley Bobrow, MD, chair of Emergency Medicine at McGovern Medical School and the John P. and Kathrine G. McGovern Distinguished Chair at the school. “This program is an incredible opportunity to help our valiant EMS partners.”