Title: First Responders and Mental Health | Psychology Today
Headings: First Responders and Mental Health
Asa Don Brown Ph.D.
First Responders and Mental Health
Improving the perception of mental healthcare and mental illness.

Content: First Responders and Mental Health | Psychology Today
Asa Don Brown Ph.D.
Towards Recovery
First Responders and Mental Health
Improving the perception of mental healthcare and mental illness. Posted May 12, 2017
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Source: Asa Don Brown
As a community, first responders have an invisible integrity that they believe differentiates them from the general public. In the community of first responders, there have been countless lives lost to suicide over the past few months. The most prevalent feature of a number of the first responder suicides is an underlying mental health issue often related to traumatic stress. In the summer of 2009, Tim McLean, a 22-year-old passenger on a Greyhound bus traveling near Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Canada, was unexpectedly and violently stabbed to death by a fellow passenger: Vince Li. Eventually, the courts would find Mr. Li not guilty nor “criminally responsible” due to evidence of mental illness. In the years to come, the experiences from that grave event would take a toll on the life of the responding RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) Constable Ken Barker. In the summer of 2014, Constable Barker would tragically take his own life.