The National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) has released a new course in its Virtual Classroom on Creating a Psychologically Healthy Fire Department. The course is designed to empower fire department leadership to promote and support healthy, high-performing fire/EMS departments.
Based on the framework of the Psychologically Healthy Fire Departments (PHFD) initiative, this course focuses on six key practices – member involvement, health and safety, member growth and development, work-life balance, member recognition, and effective communication – to facilitate member well-being and department functioning. NVFC courses are always free to members, and this course is also being offered free for a limited time to everyone.
The course is the latest resource available through the PHFD initiative, a partnership between the NVFC, American Psychological Association, and the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance to support firefighters and EMS providers and create healthy, successful departments. Maintaining a psychologically healthy fire department provides a positive work environment for responders while enhancing department performance. Other components of the initiative include the Psychologically Healthy Fire Departments: Implementation Toolkit and a directory of behavioral health professionals that are ready and equipped to help first responders and their families.
Learn more about the PHFD initiative and access resources at www.nvfc.org/phfd. Take the new course in the NVFC Virtual Classroom.