Griffith shares strategies for EMS providers

With the holidays approaching, anyone can feel especially stressed. Along with that, there are as few as 10 hours of sunlight, anyone, including emergency medical service (EMS) responders, can become depressed or “get the blues.” After being an EMS director of the southcentral Minnesota region for 23 years, Mark Griffith shared some information about the health services in the darker part of the year. For one thing, “Energy goes down and people are harder on themselves.”

 

Both stress and the shorter days play a role. 

 

“Within this next month, responders may react to a call differently than they would in July,” Griffith said. 

 

“The decrease of Vitamin D from the sun leads to an increase of both short-term and long-term depression,” Griffith said. “You don’t have to take my word for it. There are several studies out there.”

 

Some of the simplest steps to take, Griffith recommends, are getting plenty of sleep, eating well, avoiding or limiting alcohol consumption, and watching nicotine use since it can cause physical stress. Providers, he added, are people too. He hopes they recognize the importance of reaching out to others and having trustworthy people they can talk to.

 

Thanksgiving and Christmas, Griffith added, can involve pressure in the form of expectations that people should host a celebration or visit family or friends they haven’t seen in a while.

 

“The little things tend to add up,” Griffith said.

 

Those who have lost or become separated from loved ones may feel lost about what to do for the holidays because their traditions have been disrupted. They may either behave reclusively or feel a form of “survivors’ guilt.” 

 

“Outside of our normal routine, a lot of us probably don’t eat 14 pounds of turkey in a week,” Griffith pointed out. “So your diet has changed and your routine is out of whack so it leaves you wide open to an emotional change.”

 

For EMS workers, stress may increase because of an uptick in calls, sometimes because of diet-related issues, or simply because they’re lonely and they’re looking for personal connections.

 

Griffith encourages EMS responders to stay healthy since they can face the same challenges as everyone else and have the added complication of not knowing if or when they may get called away. Those extra stresses may be particularly hard on EMS providers who live alone and have no one to talk things over with.“That’s where the trouble starts, when someone gets so overwhelmed that they’re out of sorts and they’re stressed. But when they can talk to someone, the fog clears.”

 

For that reason, Griffith said he encourages providers to talk to their coworkers, family members, friends, or a pastor–but whatever they do, to find an outlet. If responders need to discuss a recent call that struck them during the holidays, a critical and stress management team can call a peer counselor or give a debriefing to the providers.

 

Physical signs of stress, he said, include higher blood pressure, an increased heart rate, and even nausea.

 

Emotional signs include anxiety about spending time with friends or family, a sense of panic or grouchiness, a desperate need to withdraw, and trouble sleeping. Griffith said people can self-regulate if they recognize these common reactions to stress. One method is maintain as normal a schedule as possible.

 

“Routine can be a comfort,” Griffith stated. “If you notice these huge symptoms, don’t make any huge decisions. Don’t decide you want to buy an $80,000 car or you want to take a trip to Fuji. Take that deep breath and come back and rethink decisions. Bottom line, don’t be impulsive. It just makes things worse in the long run.”

 

Perhaps the most important thing family members of first responders can do is listen, Griffith said, and spend time together with no agenda.

 

“But if the person asks to be left alone, let them have that privacy,” he added. “Just be available if they need it.”

 

No matter where people are in their life and what profession they work in, Griffith hopes they will remember one thing. “You may feel the weight of the world is on your shoulder, but you’re not alone,” he stated. “You always have an option to talk to someone. If you have no other number in your pocket, call 988, the suicide hotline.”