Fire & Rescue officers applaud post-Irma support session
This initiative was implemented following the passage of Hurricane Irma, which destroyed the territory two months ago, leaving persons in grief and desperation.
The support sessions are coordinated by the Employee Relations Unit of the Department of Human Resources, and provide an interactive support movement for public officers to aid in post Hurricanes Irma and Maria recovery.
The group support sessions utilises a spiritual and therapeutic approach, to assist participants in the healing process. It also relies on interactive exchange and breakout sessions. Participants are led on a journey which positively examines trauma, reactions to trauma and its major symptoms.
More support for programme
In an exclusive interview with Fire Chief, Zebalon A. McLean, he expressed that he wished the programme coordinators received more support in starting the sessions earlier.
"It was beneficial in that as you know mostly men tend to keep things bottled up inside and no matter how much we are adamant about doing that and no matter how much we consider it to be something that we should do, it is really not healthy," explained the Fire Chief.
He further stated that the sessions allowed his team members to express their experiences and try to "distress" because they were finally able to talk to somebody else, while adding that everyone in the group was able to identify with other persons and no one felt left out.
Mr McLean told our news reporter that his team was one of the first groups to start the programme, seeing that they were the first group to respond following the hurricane.
Fire Officer 53 Stephen Chinnery, shared that the session was riveting and very much needed. “It’s a beautiful thing. Everybody needs this additional help. Persons are suffering with a lot of things they won’t be able to explain. I think a lot more of these sessions need to be implemented and this was a positive start.”
Fire Officer 31 Nathan McClean said, “The session was uplifting and allowed everyone to express themselves. I think everybody came out with a more uplifted outlook on life post Hurricane Irma and what happened after the storm.
The first responder added, “Even though there is a lot of damage and a lot of loss, we still have life; we still can do, we still can go on; we still will rebuild. BVI Strong!”
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7 Responses to “Fire & Rescue officers applaud post-Irma support session”
The Chief need to congratulate Mr. Penn and dem couple of officers. It was a female officer and a few firemen. I had see after the Hurricane. They were the only few officers we saw over and over and over and out telling us bout jose on the speaker. KUDOS Mr. Penn who seemed to be leading the team. I even see dem man cleaning the high school too. They was wuking real hard. rescuing people, asking people how we were doing, like they care more for us than themselves.. Nice of dem. Dem few officers need to really be recognise. YEAH FIRE, go fire.