Once again, that's a great question.
Unfortunately it is still very prevalent. I've seen a lot of progress though over the last couple of years with amazing campaigns like Bell Let's Talk that are raising awareness and helping people not to feel weak. Sick Not Weak is another great campaign.
I'm fortunate to have a few of my paramedic friends here in the audience. We were speaking just before this meeting about how we never wanted to admit to ourselves that we could possibly be sick because of the passion that we have for this career. We didn't want to hang up our uniforms. It's not even that we keep it from each other; we keep it from ourselves. We don't want to see. That's what happens.
Unfortunately—I speak for myself—I turned to alcohol and drugs in the hope of coping with the demons that were in my mind and in my dreams so that I didn't have to hang up my uniform. Unfortunately that led to a suicide attempt.
I went to treatment. I've grieved the loss of my career; that is how much it is a part of who we are. It took a long time. With that being said, you can see how it's not an easy thing for first responders to admit. They don't want to have to admit it. Unfortunately, that's where we are, still.
With education, with this bill, with prevention, and with a decrease in stigma, I think we will have a lot more first responders with prolonged careers. I also give a lot of talks in colleges, and I present to peer support groups. One that I created is called wings of change. The purpose is to try to develop resiliency and awareness at the very beginning of a first responder's career, and to start the conversation then.
My daughter is in a police foundations program. People say, “Wow, how is that going to happen?”
You know what? I understand her passion. I support her for what she wants to do, but I'm in a wonderful position to be able to educate her. Hopefully with time, and a federal bill that brings a voice to not being weak if you are sick, it will improve and decrease the cost of the treatment that needs to eventually be addressed. I know that for myself, if I had had help earlier, I definitely wouldn't have had so many months in treatment, relapses, and so on. This is a great bill.