Fort Worth Fire Chief Jim Davis asked first responders gathered at the Bob Bolen Public Safety Complex on March 27 to think of a heart.
A vital part of the human circulatory system, he said, the organ brings fresh oxygen to itself before any other parts of the body.
“Does that mean that the heart is not thinking about everybody else? Does that mean that the heart fails to take into consideration the needs of others?” Davis asked. “No. It recognizes that before it can go on to do good things to the brain, the liver, the kidneys and everything else, it has to take care of itself first.”
A new public-private partnership between the city of Fort Worth and the American Warrior Association is hoping to instill that same ethos into local police officers and firefighters. On March 27, the partners announced the launch of the R3 program, designed to proactively address moral injury suffered by first responders in the line of duty. The three R’s stand for respond, restore and resolve.
“If left unaddressed, these can grow and they can oftentimes become too much to bear,” Anna Heil, director of development for the American Warrior Association, said. “So this program emphasizes the importance of early intervention and support by providing tools and resources to address moral injury before it escalates.”
What is moral injury?
Moral injury refers to the psychological, behavioral or social damage people incur when they perpetrate, witness or fail to prevent actions that do not align with their own moral compass.
Through the program, Fort Worth police officers and firefighters can access up to 48 hours of paid wellness training time, peer support networks, educational campaigns and seven free sessions of culturally competent counseling. By characterizing the programs as proactive training, rather than interventions, the partnership aims to destigmatize mental health discussions for first responders.
“We care to make sure not only that you’re healthy at work, but that you can go home to be husbands and mothers and sisters and brothers and fathers, and that you know your city actually cares about your well-being,” Mayor Mattie Parker said.
Police Chief Neil Noakes said leaders across both the fire department and the police department need to set an example for first responders that it’s OK not to be OK, and that self care isn’t just an option — it’s essential. Taking care of Fort Worth’s first responders enables them to take better care of the community as a whole.
“We are absolutely committed to the safety, health and resilience of the men and women who serve every day with honor and distinction,” he said.
One part of the R3 program is retreats for first responders. Several police officers and firefighters have attended wellness retreats at a California ranch through the program in the last two months. Among them was fire department chaplain Cliff Weaver.
“So often, when people reach out to me, they’re already in crisis,” Weaver said. “Their marriage is already falling apart, they’ve already been struggling with alcohol, drugs or depression, you name it. This program is just one more thing where we can address those things before they get (to that point).”
As chaplain, Weaver rarely has down time. It’s a job he loves, but he said it’s rare for him to be able to completely get away. That wasn’t true during the retreat.
“Having this one week to get away, with no distractions — cell phones don’t work out there — to get away from everything and just focus on myself, was such a gift,” he said.
Since the first group returned from the retreat, they’ve started to spread the word in their departments, and Weaver said they’ve seen a strong uptick in interest from first responders. His hope is that investing in proactive mental wellness will become second nature for the department.
“We invest in our personnel, and we tackle resiliency and wellness head-on,” he said. “And we start from the beginning, so a lot of our new recruits, from the beginning of their career, are gonna be invested in in a different way.”
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.