The City of Fayetteville Police, field operations bureau patrol, Major Darry Whitaker, and Freddy L. Johnson Sr., fire chief of Stoney Point, Fayetteville, North Carolina Fire Department, support the development of a total wellness program for Cumberland County First Responders. For decades, residents of North Carolina have experienced devastating loss of lives and properties to seemingly more frequent natural disasters, house fires, traffic accidents, crime, medical pandemics, and most recently civil riot.
First Responders work extended hours and with minimal breaks during a natural disaster emergency response and medical pandemics. According to America Public Health Association, occupational fatigue causes a negative effect on job performance and mental agility.
Maj. Darry Whitaker a prominent expert in the field of law enforcement in Fayetteville, NC, said, “The Tornado in 2011 we worked 14 days straight without any time off, initially it was a humanitarian effort searching for casualties, evacuating the injured then it became a recovery mission facilitating information sharing, assisting in providing food and other resources to our citizens, it wasn’t very traumatic for us it was just part of our assigned mission.
Before the front-line workers could lift their feet off the throttle, they were preparing to respond to yet another hurricane, Hurricane Irene, more tornadoes, Ebola disease, Hurricane Matthew and Florence.
In 2016, Hurricane Matthew came up the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. In North Carolina at least 26 people lost their lives, and 100,000 homes, businesses, and government buildings sustained damages estimated at $4.8 billion. At the storm’s peak, 3,744 individuals fled to 109 shelters across the region, more than 800,000 households lost power and 635 roads were closed, including the major east-west and north-south corridors.
“Now fast forward to Matthew It was catastrophic, the flooding was of massive proportion our Police Department was close to being flooded out,” said Whitaker. “For the first time it was so different, we had officers who could not get home and officers who could not come to work, It was so stressful on both employees and their families because they were literally shut off.”
Apart from emergency disaster responses on impacted communities which take months to recover from, the men and women of the Fayetteville, NC, Fire Department, Law enforcement, Paramedics, and the Military are in a nonstop ongoing process. They also respond to routine stress calls and perform their daily duties like house fires, traffic accidents, criminal activities, and routine medical emergencies.
Freddy L. Johnson Sr., fire chief of Stoney Point, Fayetteville, North Carolina Fire Department said, “Depending on the severity of disasters, first responders have more mental tolerance than average citizens except in cases of bad traffic accidents, shooting of children and the loss of peers in the line of duty.”
Both Johnson and Whitaker said their personnel work for extended hours, and despite their high tolerance for stress, a mandatory total wellness program for Cumberland County First Responders will be a benefit to them.
“I think a program like that will be very invaluable for personnel who are at risk demonstrating stressors and traumas,” said Whitaker. “I agree making the program mandatory and using the health and wellness approach so they can decompress via counseling or whatever is needed.”
“It certainly will be nice to have but I think funding will be a problem,” said Johnson. “If we had that it will be a good benefit for the team.”
Despite Law enforcement hard work, sacrifices, and commitment to serve their communities there are too many incidents of senseless deaths on minorities by Police officers.
The recent news of the death of an unarmed African American man by a Police officer keeling on his neck for over 8 minutes while pinned to the ground in handcuffs sparked international debates, opinions, protests and a call for reconstruction of the justice system and reform of the police departments Nationwide.
Black Lives Matter Co- founder Alicia Garza, addressed defunding the Police on NBC News to Chuck Todd a news anchor with NBC news.
Major Whitaker does not disagree that work must be done to fix the stigma hanging over Police agencies. He said it must start with community engagement and community relations, however he does disagree with a total defunding of the service.
“Recently the public call to defund the Police service, instead funds should be redirected by isolating a percent of the funding toward mental health and wellbeing of our personnel,” said Whitaker. “If it means cutting back on less bullets, cars etc., and redistribute the budget funds, when it is allocated, 5% of your personnel will go through the self-aspect of the wellness campaign.”
We know how to protect the public but we don’t take care of ourselves, I think the program is a great idea, I think it will be very effective, and I think it’s something that is needed, said Whitaker.
References:
Alltucker, K., Brown-Peyton, M., Futch, M., & Riley, R., (2020). George Floyd sparked that fuel: Hundreds gather for NC memorial to man whose death inspired movement
American Public Health Association. (Jan 2000). Public health impacts of job stress. Retrieved online
Black Lives Mater. (2013) Herstory. Retrieved online https://blacklivesmatter.com/herstory/
Federal Emergency Management Agency (2016). Daily mission assignment activity. Retrieved online https://search.usa.gov/search?affiliate=fema&page=3&query=Hurricane+Matthew+and+Fayetteville&sort_by=&utf8=%E2%9C%93
Google Image. (2020). Retrieved online https://images.app.goo.gl/3ndYEUmxx6C6FEyH9
Johnson, F., (June 2020). Stoney Point Fire Department. Retrieved online https://www.stoneypointfirerescue.com/
North Carolina Department of Public Safety. (2016). Hurricane Matthew 2016 storm statistics. Retrieved online https://www.ncdps.gov/hurricane-matthew/storm-stats
Todd, C., (2020). NBC News Meet the Press: Defund the police means invest in the resources that our communities need. Retrieved online https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NrRIIeNFfo&feature=emb_title
Whitaker, D., (2020). LinkedIn retrieved online https://www.linkedin.com/in/darry-whitaker-77370336/
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