In an effort to change the culture surrounding post-traumatic stress, a public safety health and wellness program collaborated with the Boulder Crest Foundation for Post-Traumatic Growth to pilot and scale that organization’s first responder initiative called “Struggle Well.”

This presentation will outline the strategy and framework behind the coalition, discuss the impact of post-traumatic stress in public safety, and the impact of post-traumatic growth in the population.

The socio-ecological model of health and behavior change identifies different levels of intervention to influence health. These include the individual; family, unit, or group; organization; community and federal/national levels. A First Responder Health and Wellness Program adopted the evidence-based approach to address health promotion at the organizational level, through incorporation of a Health and Wellness Coalition. Since its creation in 2020, the coalition has collected data from across the population to identify the needs and critical health and wellness priorities of first responders. It has developed strategic objectives to drive towards action through technical solutions, strategic partnerships, and collaborative endeavors with research and practice. This rich collaboration addresses multiple issues, including post-traumatic stress, depression and self-harm, stress management, physical fitness, resiliency, and family member and leadership engagement.

Attendees will:

• Be able to describe the theoretical framework of the Health and Wellness Coalition
• Identify the key priorities established through the First Responder Needs Assessment
• Be able to describe post-traumatic stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, and post-traumatic growth
• Be able to describe the impacts of the first responder initiative for post-traumatic growth