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First Responders, who are they:

Mothers, Daughters, Sister, Nieces, Fathers, Sons, Brothers, Nephews, Aunts, Uncles, Grandmothers, Grandfathers. They are just like you and me and what I mean by that is they are human too.

To me personally first responders are both my son and my daughter.

I am a mother of a police officer and a police dispatcher, I see firsthand how hard first responders work, how many long hours and many times double shifts. They also work most holidays and very rarely spend enough time with their families. It’s hard to see so much sadness and ugliness in our world today as it all seems so unnecessary. We need to look at our first responders differently. So many people say how hard it is to watch the news lately and choose not to do it anymore. Unfortunately, first responders do not have the option to shut the tv off because they are usually the ones, on the call, at the incident or maybe even the actual victims.

I recently went to the Irish Angels first responder’s fundraiser, and I was so impressed I wanted to help in any way possible. I donated items, money and then I realized I that my job running a mental health agency could also be helpful. I then, reached out to Irish Angel’s and met with Amanda Coleman. She was an amazing, positive, and caring individual that founded this amazing support network for all service men and women from around the world. I thought what better help than to add first responders’ mental health to our program. We had a wonderful meeting with our mental health providers to introduce this new addition to our program for 2022. Telehealth for first responders. Its honestly ok to not be ok and supporting our first responders is something we all need to do.

Judy Donnelly
VP of Operations DCS Mental Health, Inc.
www.dcsmentalhealth.com