Fire Fighting in Canada: Defining stress and states of mental health

Mental wellness is closely related to preventative care. For the fire service, this means reaching out for help before one’s sense of self seriously deteriorates. Nick Halmasy, a former firefighter who is now a registered psychotherapist and founder of After the Call, joins host Tom DeSorcy, the fire chief in Hope, B.C., for a conversation about his experience with stressful calls alongside determining what is a normal stress response and what is not. He emphasizes there are a multitude of roles stress plays in a person’s life. A serious state of distress may not always indicate PTSD, but needs appropriate help nonetheless.