by AllThingsECC.com | Mar 11, 2024 | Comm Center News
Content provided by FirstNet, built with AT&T
What’s the news?
FirstNet, Built with AT&T, and the FirstNet Health and Wellness Coalition (FNHWC) have identified the major barriers to mental health program adoption among first responder agencies and developed five key recommendations to improve the health and wellness of public safety in the new white paper, “Helping the Helpers: Lessons Learned and Outcomes to Date from the FirstNet Health and Wellness Coalition.”
Based on lessons learned from FNHWC in its first three years and feedback from emergency responders around the country, the white paper establishes tangible next steps to better implement health and wellness programs and lays the foundation for public safety legislative advocacy going forward.
What are the recommendations?
The issues facing our first responders are complex and don’t have a “one size fits all” solution. Endorsed by more than two dozen public safety organizations and over 40 collaborators, the fjve recommendations target all levels of cultural change and are based on responses gathered from the FirstNet Needs Assessment Survey and a body of evidence-supported strategies. These include:
- Deepening leadership engagement and equipping them with the skills to help all levels of responders see value in training and lifestyle changes through leadership modeling health and wellness behaviors and regularly reinforcing the importance of these practices to their department.
- Integrating wellness education into training from the time responders are at the academy through retirement. Instead of being considered an added benefit, wellness programs need to be woven into the fabric of responders’ daily lives and their career progression.
- Allocating dedicated funding and resources to implement evidence-based solutions from agencies, both local and national, to create systematic changes. While grants fill a huge void in funding resources, they are not enough.
- Defining national wellness standards on evidence-based health and wellness programs and provide access to technical assistance centers to provide additional services for responders.
- Better communications between national and local first responder agencies and from leadership to share best practices to encourage health and wellness opportunities.
Why is this important?
Compared to the general population, first responders, including police, fire, emergency telecommunicators, emergency management, frontline healthcare personnel and others, experience higher rates of depression, post-traumatic stress, burnout, anxiety and other issues1 that can lead to secondary or tertiary health risks like cardiovascular disease, cancer, or disordered sleep.
- For law enforcement, there is a more than a 20-year difference in life expectancy compared to the average American male.2
- It’s estimated that 20-25% of all first responders experience post-traumatic stress.3
- Death by suicide in this group often outnumbers traditional line-of-duty deaths.4
- Nurses and other frontline healthcare personnel have long been at an increased risk of suicide than the general population.5
What is the FNWHC?
Through its work with public safety, leadership at FirstNet – the only nationwide communications network built with and for public safety – recognized the need to dedicate resources towards first responder mental health. Established by AT&T in 2020, the FNHWC brings together over two dozen national safety organizations representing more than 5.1 million first responders across disciplines like fire, police, EMS, 911 and emergency response to assess, plan, integrate and evaluate strategies and solutions that support first responder wellness.
What are people saying?
As a former critical care nurse, I have seen firsthand the impact mental health programming can have on individual responders and a department’s culture. Time, investment and collaboration between first responders, leadership and government agencies will create more resilient communities. FirstNet and the Coalition are proud to be a part of an initiative that helps our helpers and save lives.” — Dr. Anna Courie, director of Responder Wellness, FirstNet Program at AT&T
With their white paper, FirstNet has captured the importance of placing the health and wellness of our nation’s first responders front and center. The FirstNet Health and Wellness Coalition has brought together stakeholders from all the first responder disciplines, helping to streamline the work of supporting those who keep us safe.” — Sherri Martin, national director of Wellness Services, Fraternal Order of Police
Mental health and wellness are critically important for the future of first responders everywhere. It is imperative that we break down the stigma associated with seeking help and resources which help us build better people after trauma and struggle. Only by openly talking about these issues and creating a ‘new normal’ for mental health struggles will we accomplish this.” — Chief Paco Balderrama, chief of police, Fresno Police Department
The Helping the Helpers white paper will greatly benefit America’s 9-1-1 professionals, who are the first first responders on a scene, by creating a culture of better health and wellness.” — April Heinze, director of 9-1-1 and PSAP Operations at NENA: The 9-1-1 Association
Having been involved in public safety for over thirty years, I firmly believe this is one of the most significant advancements in the overall health of first responders. I hope we continue to see growth from this project and ensure that our partners will continue to have productive careers and retirements as well.” — Rich Martin, deputy chief, Castle Rock Fire and Rescue Department
Helping the Helpers is a pivotal milestone for all emergency personnel, leveraging research and data that demonstrates our need for support and creating a pathway to make critical improvements to public safety wellness.” — Carrie Speranza, CEM, 2nd vice president of IAEM, director of emergency management solutions at Esri
I am extremely proud of this work to support first responders, in particular, the consideration given for their health and wellness. First responders, including nurses and other health care professionals, answer the call to communities’ emergencies and disasters, tirelessly protecting the public’s health and safety. This program is crucial for these brave members of society who serve on the frontlines to feel protected and supported. On behalf of ANA, we champion and recognize the FirstNet Program as a valuable resource.” — Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, PhD, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, ANA president
The work the FNHWC does for responders is significant to the law enforcement profession as keeping officers healthy is paramount to creating safe communities. As the past president of NAWLEE, I have spoken to agencies from across the county that know this is a priority. Tools and resources will help agencies develop the best policies and implement strategies that will enhance the wellness and resiliency of responders.” — Chief Shannon Trump, Indiana University Health Department of Public Safety
References
- Health: A Therapy Dog Implementation Guide. Bowling Green University.
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4734369/
- Tedeschi RG, Calhoun LG. The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory: measuring the positive legacy of trauma. J Trauma Stress. 1996 Jul;9(3):455-71. doi: 10.1007/BF02103658. PMID: 8827649.
- https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/dtac/supplementalresearchbulletin-firstresponders-may2018.pdf
- https://sigmapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/wvn.12419
by AllThingsECC.com | Mar 9, 2024 | Articles, Comm Center News
By Richard Mirgon
As you know, I was part of the first responder community that fought for what is now FirstNet. We were engaged in the language of the legislation and worked with Congress to get it created. Specifically, it is a nationwide public safety broadband network built on the basis of a public-private partnership and as a single network. I was one of a few hundred that caused this to happen and was part of the leadership team. One item that was of extreme importance was that we needed to stand together to find a common solution. We spent days reviewing all the past attempts where cities, regions and states tried to build on their own networks. That list is long and mostly forgotten, but hundreds of millions of dollars were spent of taxpayer funds and they all failed. Primarily, it was too costly. Capital costs were in the hundreds of millions with annual costs totaling tens of millions of dollars. That is the proven reality of local builds or what the opposition is calling local control.
So, what is it that got me thinking this morning? Well, I was looking at some of the public safety technology news feeds and I was reading an article about how much data 911 centers are going to be pushing to first responders in every jurisdiction nationwide. Things like video, floorplans, satellite images, augmented reality overlays and situational awareness applications just to name a few. That is a lot of data to push and to receive. Imagine 20, 30, 40 or more first responders needing to view the interior of a building. Everyone reading this knows, and yes “knows” that a commercial carrier won’t allow that much data without either throttling it (slowing your speeds or limiting data) or charging you more money to do it (again, that has been done already). Just look at all of the new applications that companies like Motorola and RapidSOS are building for public safety. It is amazing. You might even ask yourself what has caused this boom. Well, it was FirstNet. Public safety has a network that makes it a reality. Because of FirstNet we have seen an explosion in the tools that first responders use every day. And as most of you know, we need FirstNet because not only have commercial carriers throttled public safety, charge more for high data use, they have also turned off commercial cell sites because it cost them too much to operate and wasn’t profitable for them. Yet, at the same time, as other carriers turned off sites, FirstNet was building more sites and improving its coverage.
This brings me to the topic of the day and why the 4.9GHz band needs FirstNet. The need to keep FirstNet robust and on the cutting edge. You do that with the allocation of the 4.9GHz public safety broadband network to FirstNet so that it is part of the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network spectrum holdings. For FirstNet to meet the future needs of public safety, additional spectrum needs to be added to the FirstNet network. Full stop! Others inaccurately like to pontificate by saying that it will become AT&T spectrum. Not true. AT&T is the contractor to build and operate FirstNet. They don’t own FirstNet. This is an easy lie to tell by the opposition, but it is a blatant lie to say AT&T will own the spectrum. The reality is that FirstNet is governed by a Board of Public Safety Officials that must follow federal law in everything it does. We don’t know how they will enable it, but that is why they are there. Remember, the FirstNet Authority consists of a board of public safety officials, private sector executives and a professional staff. It is their job to do what is best for public safety. And so far, their record is outstanding. 5.5 million users on the network, 27,000 agencies and thousands of applications all in just a few short years. They have built the largest and most effective public safety broadband network in the world. Clearly, they can be trusted to do what is best for OUR network. They have proven it!
Yet with all that good work there are those that oppose it. Many would ask why would someone oppose something that has proven to be a major success for all of public safety? The simple answer is money. This coalition, that has become known as CERCI, has as its major supporters Verizon and T-Mobile. That is simple to understand. Many of those 5.5 million users left their commercial networks for a hardened public safety network that offers true priority, preemption and local control. The math is simple. Let’s say one of the carriers lost 1 million of those 5.5 million to FirstNet. Take whatever number you want to use as an average monthly cell phone bill and multiply by 1 million times 12 and that is at minimum lost revenue by that carrier. That number will be in the area of one half a billion dollars a year. Now that is corporate motivation!
Next, you have utilities that want free spectrum to build their own networks. They need spectrum for their own operations and without it, they, as for-profit companies, must buy spectrum like any other company which would cost them billions of dollars. If they save that money with free spectrum, their stock price goes up and they make huge profits. Sometimes they use their excess spectrum for commercial use selling it to other companies. They are all motivated strictly for corporate gain.
Then you have a couple of public safety associations that are supporting CERCI. I can’t tell you exactly why they have partnered with Verizon, T-Mobile, Edison Electric, and others and have proposed to share our public safety spectrum with the critical infrastructure industry (CII), (and yes that is part of their position.) but I do think it is time for them, the public safety board members of those associations, to explain how allowing CII, which includes utilities, transportation, commercial facilities, financial sector, defense industry and others, to use your spectrum is good for you. I also know that only those states, counties and cities with money could even try and build, but history has shown it will fail. I know that the average first responder will never get access under their plan because they can’t afford to build or effectively manage such networks. I do know that once CII gets access to and uses this spectrum, we will never get them off it.
Here is a little side note related to those few public safety groups supporting CERIC. Representatives supporting the allocation of the spectrum to FirstNet have asked to talk with the boards of the few associations supporting CERCI and have been denied that opportunity. Is that true? If so, why don’t they want to hear both sides? I have also been told that members inside those organizations don’t know why they are supporting CERCI and the sharing of the spectrum. The vast majority of the public safety associations are supporting the allocation of this spectrum to FirstNet. Why are just a couple taking this other path that would cost millions of dollars to deploy?
Look, at the end of the day, we have already tried to build local control networks – been there, done that. Proven and documented. Multiple major cities spent tens of millions of their taxpayer money along with tens of millions of federal grant money to try and they failed. All wasted money. Again, this isn’t speculation – this is fact. My question to any chief officer or sheriff is this: Are you willing to take tens of millions of dollars to build a network that may or may not work when you could use that money for staff to provide direct response to your communities? Are you willing to take the heat from your city councils or your constituents that this service could have come at a lower price from FirstNet? Local builds are just that, they are local and leave behind the vast majority of first responders across the country. The only way to get nationwide coverage and usage is with our only Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network, FirstNet.
by AllThingsECC.com | Mar 7, 2024 | Comm Center News
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Tina Smith (D-MN) announced that the House of Representatives passed legislation that included $2,965,000 in funding for a project to upgrade Ramsey County first responder radios. This project, which Klobuchar and Smith worked to include, will help ensure emergency and public safety communications networks remain intact and keep residents and emergency responders safe. Klobuchar and Smith requested the funding along with U.S. Representative Betty McCollum (D-MN). The bill now goes to the Senate for final passage.
“This project will make essential upgrades to Ramsey County’s first responder radios, ensuring they have the tools they need to keep our communities safe. With House passage, this project is one step closer to securing the new first responder radios,” said Klobuchar.
“Every day, first responders in Ramsey County put their lives on the line to protect their communities,” said Smith. “They deserve to have updated, functioning equipment to help them do their jobs, but their radios are outdated and failing. This funding would replace these radios and replace power generators at radio towers, allowing first responders and public safety personnel to efficiently and effectively do their jobs.”
Klobuchar and Smith have been actively involved in securing this federal funding for projects benefiting communities across the state through a process called “Congressionally Directed Spending” (CDS). During the CDS process, Klobuchar and Smith have considered project proposals and advocated for funding in close coordination with leaders from across the state.
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by AllThingsECC.com | Mar 6, 2024 | Comm Center News
DURHAM, N.C. (WNCN) – If you call 911 in Durham, there’s a chance you’ll get an answer from another town nearly 80 miles away. That’s because the City Council is set to vote on a new proposal to reroute calls to Fayetteville.
by AllThingsECC.com | Mar 5, 2024 | Comm Center News
On March 1, 2024, Legislative Director Kevin Kinnally testified before the House Health and Government Operations Committee in support of HB 1141 – Human Services – 2-1-1 and 3-1-1 Systems – Nonemergency Information and Referrals with amendments. This bill envisions a statewide 2-1-1 and 3-1-1 system for nonemergency government services, resources, and information to streamline service delivery for Maryland residents, businesses, and visitors.
