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This issue is packed with a variety of topics: harassment in the fire service, coping with addiction, a memorial ride, the aftereffects of the Boston Marathon bombing, our newest board member, and much more. Kudos to the those who took the time to contribute.
If any of you will be attending The Compassionate Friends conference for bereaved parents and siblings in Chicago July 11 - 13, please email me. I would like to meet you and say hello in person. Also, I will be presenting a workshop at the Guiding Hearts With Hope conference September 13 in Hanover, PA. If you are in the area consider attending. I would love to have you in class. See more information about these conferences in this newsletter.
Thank you for being a subscriber to the Badge newsletter. I appreciate your support.
Stay safe and HUGS,
Peggy Sweeney, Editor
830.377.7389
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Press Release - June 20, 2014
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Law Enforcement Officer, Army Veteran, and Clinical Counselor Elected to The Sweeney Alliance Board of Directors
Kerrville, Texas - Peggy Sweeney, founder and president of the Texas-based, non-profit company The Sweeney Alliance, is pleased to announce that Christopher "Chris" Hancock has been elected to their board of directors.
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Project Blue Light - Memorial Ride
by Vincent Gibson
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This is a ride that no police department nationwide will do to honor active police officers who died by suicide. This is the first ride of its kind to ever be done. Please join us in this special ride for honor. Peggy Sweeney and The Sweeney Alliance support the efforts of Vince Gibson and Wendy Mcllwraith.
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Finding a Positive: Pushing The Stigma Down
by Robert R. Devonshire Jr.
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Diagnosed almost two and a half years ago, I am finally at a place that I feel  good again. I feel like I can now deal with my issues on my own and have been for a while. I am not sure what worked to get me here, but I do have some ideas.
By far one of my biggest concerns has been the stigma of having PTSD. It took me some time to figure out that I just had to tell people about it and if they have a problem with it that it is their problem and not my problem. If you have been following me in Firefighter PTSD - a closed group on Facebook - you know my story and you know I felt a need to talk about my experiences in hopes of helping someone else.
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Crossing the Line
Blog Series by Maryanne Pope
 When Maryanne Pope's husband, Constable John Petropoulos, died in the line of duty in 2000 as the result of a preventable fall at an unsafe workplace, Maryanne went into a freefall of her own into grief and depression - and a determination to ensure positive change came from tragedy. Crossing the Line is a blog series about Maryanne's experience of coming to terms with her husband's death and working with the John Petropoulos Memorial Fund to help create a culture of safer workplaces for everyone, including emergency responders. Though Maryanne's professional commitment has been as an advocate for the physical safety of first responders, much of her writing and public speaking has been about the emotional, psychological and spiritual impacts of learning to accept the unacceptable and transform hurt into hope. Fourth in the series:
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Welcome to My World
by Robert Cubby
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Many of us have been touched by the changes trauma has brought to our lives. These changes have been grouped into a category of PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Let's break that down a little. Post means after. After what? Trauma - hence, it is past the trauma; after the trauma took place. Stress, what the body goes through to cope with an insult to it. Disorder, the interesting part. It connotes that at sometime we had order and now we don't.
We know from our experiences that things now are all out of order. We learn to deal with them, to try to bring order to the disorder. During our therapy, we hope to eventually gain the ability to cope with our disorder. Sometimes, by doing so, we come to the conclusion that we've changed somehow and that we need to deal with that change. We accept that change and embrace that change. But what about the others in our lives? We get to the point that we get it, we understand what's going on with us, but others don't. We know that they try hard to deal with us during our struggles, but what happens when we accept who we've become and deal with it, but they don't recognize us or cannot deal with the "new" us?
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The Accident
by Ann González
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The car perched precariously on a branch
The front tires dangling in the air
She must have jumped to get out.
Her brothers teased her later about off-roading.
People came right away to help, they almost always do.
Nameless people you never can thank afterward.
The boyfriend was there, too, tall and red-eyed,
He ran all the way from his house to the crash.
The paramedic called from the ambulance.
A few scrapes and bumps, nothing serious, he said.
Thank you, thank you, I told him,
As if it had been his own personal decision to spare her.
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Discrete Solutions
by Don Prince
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As I talk to more and more first responders throughout the country, it is apparent that we aren't doing enough to help our brothers and sisters deal with the stresses that we face both from critical incident responses and the PTSD that can result from them as well as dealing with everyday life which can add a ton of extra pressure on our lives.
We all deal with these issues differently, and not always in the most healthy ways. And it's not just about the drinking or using other substances to alleviate the stress. It's also about how we might start to isolate from our families and friends, lose interest in things that used to give us pleasure and purpose, like the firehouse or fishing or going to the beach. The list is endless. The point is, there are solutions, discrete solutions, to what messes with our heads and it's OK to ask for help. It only gets worse with time. The most popular emails or messages I get from men and women from every corner of the county is, I thought it was just me and that I was alone, but now I see I am not the only one feeling this way. You are not alone.
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Harassment in the Fire Service
by Shelly Spivey
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My story, as my old chief used to say, is "the same, but different". Many  female firefighters experience harassment of one kind or another while on the job. Although what I went through is my unique experience, it may seem familiar to others who have tread these same paths. The names have been changed to protect privacy.
I joined the fire service as a volunteer in 1999. I was bored and was looking for some way to do something "great". My volunteer department was very accepting and through that acceptance I was encouraged to abandon what I went to college for (education) and pursue a career in the fire service full time. It was a dream I'd had since I was a toddler, and I was going to make it come true.
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Resilient and Stronger
by Mark St. Hilaire
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2013 has been a year which has tested many first responders' resiliency, mine  included. The test for me began on April 15, while I was attending the ILEETA (International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association) conference in Illinois. I received a text message from an out-of-state friend telling me that a bomb had gone off at the Boston Marathon. The Boston Marathon comes straight through the middle of my community. I started calling some of my officers who were back home to find out what was going on. I was barraged with more text messages from family and friends checking on me. The initial reports were confusing, but I soon found out that my community 14 miles west of Boston was safe.
I experienced mixed feelings through the rest of that week. Many friends at the conference, my family and personal friends assured me that I was where I was supposed to be.
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 The Sweeney Alliance, a Texas-based 501(c)(3) corporation, has been a leader in educational resources addressing the emotional needs of families and emergency responders since 1992. In the last 2+ years, we have published over 385 articles on loss and grief, post traumatic stress and other "hot topics". All newsletters are free of charge for our subscribers. Your donation today will help us continue as a FREE publication. Thank you! |
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