Fire Lieutenant Doug Hexel has spent 13 years running calls, pulling patients out of rubble, and training the next generation of paramedics. He loves the job. He just refuses to let it become his whole identity. Doug is a career fire officer, urban search and rescue specialist, paramedic, and sworn…
Nearly ten years ago, Asst. Chief Jason Corthell and his team set out to build a wellness program with no template to copy. They started with three services: chaplaincy, peer support, and professional counseling. The fire chief at the time took some convincing. Today he’s the program’s biggest advocate. Jason…
He told a room of first responders that men are generally more closed off than women. On his break, a female police officer set him straight: “Women first responders tend to be more closed off than men. They can’t show any more weakness than what’s already been painted on them.”…
How do you build a fire service wellness program, and what does it actually cost? In this Visionary Leaders episode of Responder Resilience, Assistant Chief Jason Corthell of Cypress Creek Fire Department explains how his team built a program on three pillars (chaplaincy, peer support, and professional counseling) and why…
In 2001, Nancy Carbone walked into a Brooklyn firehouse and asked one question that built a 25-year, free and confidential mental health nonprofit serving the FDNY. In this episode, Carbone and incoming Executive Director Chrissy Neafsey talk about the origin of Friends of Firefighters, the leadership transition to Chrissy and…
One of our most-downloaded episodes was our first conversation with Dr. Stacy Raymond, PsyD, on treating veterans who transitioned into first responder roles. This is the deeper dive. In this Clinician's Guide Masterclass, Dr. Raymond returns to go past the overview: distinguishing moral injury from PTSI, working with a veteran's…
Nobody radios in "I'm not okay." You just push through the next call, and the one after that. Gary Roberts has pushed through calls for more than twenty years, as an active firefighter and paramedic in Fort Lauderdale. He's also built an AI company on the side, between shifts, on…
Assistant Chief Manny Almaguer draws a distinction most fire departments have never heard: cultural competency and cultural empathy are not the same thing. One checks a box. The other earns trust. In this conversation, he breaks down what that difference actually looks like on the ground. Before he ever put…
#911 #FDNY #FirstResponders #ResponderResilience #WTCHealthProgram #FirefighterHealth #GroundZero #NeverForget"It's not a question of if you're going to get sick. It's when." Ret. FDNY Deputy Chief Richard Alles isn't being dramatic, he's talking to anyone with 9/11 exposure. You can live the healthiest lifestyle possible and it still won't cancel out that…
"The pH of the toxic dust was the equivalent of Drano." Ret. FDNY Deputy Chief Richard Alles breaks down why skin cancer, not respiratory illness, is the #1 cancer in the 9/11 community, and why every 9/11-exposed responder needs a full-body skin check they might not know to ask for.…
Twenty-five years after 9/11, more than 600 FDNY members have died from Ground Zero-related illness, nearly double the number lost in the collapse itself. Retired FDNY Deputy Chief Richard Alles arrived 20 minutes after the second tower fell and spent nine months on-site. Today, as Director of 9/11 Community Affairs…
Dr. Johnny Torgeson opened a top-grossing fitness franchise at 25, served as an Army sergeant, and now commands operations at a federal fire department. Along the way he identified a gap most fire officers never get taught: how to actually build a team, not just staff one. He wrote Forging…
The response to Ground Zero didn't end in 2001. For the FDNY, it became a 25 year path through recovery, transformation, and choices most agencies will never have to make. Fewer than 600 of the 11,500 FDNY firefighters who were at the World Trade Center on September 11 remain on…
Terry Hastings didn't set out to become New York State's first Chief Wellness Officer. He built the case for the role one needs assessment, one training module, one hard conversation at a time. He partnered with the Institute for Disaster Mental Health and the Benjamin Center at SUNY New Paltz…
The injury gets treated. The claim gets filed. The responder gets lost in between. Retired Battalion Chief David Picone spent years inside a system that's supposed to cover everything: prevention, behavioral health, cancer, rehab, the claim itself, and watched it fail at the seams. So he rebuilt it. Thirty-four integrated…
Twenty-five years later, 343 still means something. It's the number of FDNY members lost on 9/11. Now it's also the number of miles a five-day ride will cover, from Boston to the 9/11 Memorial in New York City. Suzanne Stone, President and CEO of Livestrong, joins Responder Resilience to talk…
"Cultural competence" gets thrown around a lot in mental health circles. Dr. Brooke Bartlett has a harder definition: specialized, ongoing training paired with hands-on experience - not a one-hour class, not having an uncle who's a firefighter, not a personality trait you either have or don't. Dr. Bartlett, licensed clinical…
You chose this Work on purpose. Now let's make sure it doesn't choose you. The new book "Helping the Helpers" is here — and it's unlike anything written for clinicians working in high-stakes, cross-cultural spaces. This isn't a clinical manual collecting dust on a shelf. It's a layer-by-layer guide built…
What happens when every traditional treatment fails — and a first responder is still drowning? Retired FDNY-EMS paramedic and Army combat medic Carmine Fiore survived 30 treatment centers and 15 heroin overdoses before trying something the first responder world rarely talks about: Ibogaine-assisted treatment at Ambio Life Sciences in Tijuana,…
Raw. Real. Relevant. "Helping the Helpers" dives deep into the hearts and minds of those who give everything for others—often at the cost of themselves. Watch the trailer, feel the urgency, and join the movement to support those on the front lines. Don’t just scroll—take action. Be the resource they…
She lost him. Then she found a way through. Lt. James Crawford (Ret.) of the Chicago Police Department was a pastor, a mentor, and the man everyone leaned on. Months after retiring, he died by suicide. His wife, Erie S. Crawford, LSW, PhD — a licensed social worker who saw…
After 26 years as an FBI Special Agent — investigating fraud, corruption, and the schemes that cost people everything — Jerri Williams could have walked away quietly. She didn't. She entered the Bureau in 1982 as one of the first Black female agents in FBI history. She worked the cases.…
The United States has one of the highest fire death rates in the industrialized world. Not because the firefighters aren't good enough. Not because the apparatus isn't fast enough. Because of culture. Dr. Burton Clark has been saying that since 1970. He became a volunteer firefighter that year, a career…
A senior FBI agent heard Chaplain Cary Friedman deliver a eulogy. He was struck by something he couldn't quite name: the message was spiritual, but it wasn't religious. Universal without being hollow. A week later, Chaplain Friedman was at the FBI Academy in Quantico. He's been consulting to the Behavioral…
