Firefighters
Some statistics rank suicide as the number 1 cause of firefighter deaths! Firefighters, as a group, routinely enter burning and fully involved structures in order to save lives. Often, victims cannot be saved and perish in home and business fires, leaving family, friends, and firefighters traumatized and scarred. Over time, these traumatic memories have a cumulative effect and leave firefighters traumatized and occasionally even suicidal. Chronic pain is often a side effect of the traumatic stress they have experienced. This affects not only the firefighter, but families as well. These effects, left untreated destroy the lives of the firefighters and families.
Military
Members of the military and their families sacrifice for their country, often making significant, or even the ultimate sacrifice. Service members routinely come home from active duty assignments scarred from their experiences - experiences that most of us will never be forced to see or experience. Symptoms can include flashbacks, nightmares and night terrors, intrusive memories, moodiness, outbursts of anger and even violence. In addition, many veterans develop chronic pain from that often is a byproduct of traumas they have experienced. These traumas are not an indication of weakness, but symptoms of a brain injury, and must be treated as such.
Law Enforcement
This is a unique time in history. Law enforcement officers are routinely exposed to death and violence. Regardless of the amount of training and available resources, these events often cause significant impairments in social and cognitive functioning. Divorce and suicide rates among law enforcement men and women are far above the general population. Resources made available to officers are often designed around a group and many are mostly ineffective. Individualized therapy to help members of law enforcement deal with difficult life experiences is often the difference in healing the individual and family and continuing the same destructive path. Healing is not only possible, but likely when proper interventions are used.