Another one dry docks himself

[Gary D.]

Many times you have seen me type about PSD Burnout.

Well, as far as experience goes we just had our #2 resign. He has been having issues for quite a while and the burnout had been slowly getting fuel to the fire.

We had an incident a few years ago where he retrieved a small child from a vehicle that was in the process of loading a boat. It was a senseless death that was easy for the parents to prevent. This one, like a couple I’ve had, has weighed heavy on him. He’ll talk about it from time to time but just can’t let go.

This isn’t the only reason he has resigned but it is one of the contributing factors in his decision.

We are going to go into the summer with around 66% of the team not being up to speed. This sucks.

Gary D.

 

[leam]

Gary, as a "just voted in" member of a local volunteer team I'm interested in knowing what I can do; not only to avoid this myself but to help others on the team who may be heading that way. Any suggestions?

ciao!

leam

 

[SheriffMedic]

Gary, I feel your loss, it's tough to lose experienced team members in this way. The day that one quit's feeling upset or sad for another human senselessy losing their life is the day they need to quit being operational. Every public safety diver has had this happen and has had to deal with it. If you haven't had this happen, you will. Team debriefings are a great way to deal with the stressful events that happen. Im not a huge fan of therapists coming in and talking to teams, the absolute last thing I want to hear is, "And how does that make you feel?".

I was speaking to someone very special to me last night and it's rather strange that you posted this because we were discussing something very similiar. It helps if you have someone to talk to, who will listen and be non-judgemental on how you feel. If your fellow diver wants to hang it up, support him 100% in his decision, and be there for him if he wants to talk. I'm willing to bet that in the future, once he works through everything, he will be back. From my past experience of losing team members a large percentage of them come back.

Leam, I think the majority of my post will answer your question. In short, talk talk talk, always keep an avenue of discussion available. Set up MANDATORY debriefings after the event. In these debriefings talk about what went right, what went wrong, and what you need to do to improve or change. While this meeting is happening, it helps if someone brings up the emotional aspect of it. It may be something as simple as, "Hey guys and gals, I don't know about the rest of you, but that really upset me", I have found that this very sentence will open up alot of discussion and that is your goal here, discussion.

In parting I'll say this, "Don't let any death become a senseless statistic. Learn from it, pick apart what happened and how it can be prevented in the future or how your team can better tackle the operation. Every death should be a learning experience, you just have to allow it to become useful."

 

[Gary D.]

Gary, I feel your loss, it's tough to lose experienced team members in this way. The day that one quit's feeling upset or sad for another human senselessy losing their life is the day they need to quit being operational. Every public safety diver has had this happen and has had to deal with it. If you haven't had this happen, you will. Team debriefings are a great way to deal with the stressful events that happen. Im not a huge fan of therapists coming in and talking to teams, the absolute last thing I want to hear is, "And how does that make you feel?".

I was speaking to someone very special to me last night and it's rather strange that you posted this because we were discussing something very similiar. It helps if you have someone to talk to, who will listen and be non-judgemental on how you feel. If your fellow diver wants to hang it up, support him 100% in his decision, and be there for him if he wants to talk. I'm willing to bet that in the future, once he works through everything, he will be back. From my past experience of losing team members a large percentage of them come back.

Leam, I think the majority of my post will answer your question. In short, talk talk talk, always keep an avenue of discussion available. Set up MANDATORY debriefings after the event. In these debriefings talk about what went right, what went wrong, and what you need to do to improve or change. While this meeting is happening, it helps if someone brings up the emotional aspect of it. It may be something as simple as, "Hey guys and gals, I don't know about the rest of you, but that really upset me", I have found that this very sentence will open up alot of discussion and that is your goal here, discussion.

In parting I'll say this, "Don't let any death become a senseless statistic. Learn from it, pick apart what happened and how it can be prevented in the future or how your team can better tackle the operation. Every death should be a learning experience, you just have to allow it to become useful."

Hi SheriffMedic.

I’ve had that feeling a couple of hundred times. Some are easy to get rid of but others seem to stick around a little longer.

April 29 is not a good day for me. It hasn’t been sense 1986 but I’m thankful that little 7 year old is the only one I have trouble with.

We do a debriefing after EVERY call, good results or not we debrief. I can’t stress that enough as it is one of the most important things a team can do. NO! Peer pressure and Debrief after every call.

Our members burn out and once they leave they don’t want to return. A big percentage of our department from the very top to the bottom has been on the team at one time or another.

We have had some very quiet years but we have also had years where we have made a hundred or more working dives. It’s rare but we have gone for a month without ever working anything but dive related stuff. That gets old.

You just have to try hard to get rid of the feelings and not let them eat at you. We are very fortunate that we have all the support we need whenever we need it. But even that doesn’t help those with a MACHO attitude.

Gary D.

 

[ReefGuy]

From another FNG, I appreciate you guy's wisdom. This is the big unknown for me about doing this. I know I will be able to master the diving mechanics and techniques, but It's really abstract to say "One day, this will happen to me if I do this long enough".

 

[Gary D.]

From another FNG, I appreciate you guy's wisdom. This is the big unknown for me about doing this. I know I will be able to master the diving mechanics and techniques, but It's really abstract to say "One day, this will happen to me if I do this long enough".

It only takes once to ruin your life if you can't get it out of the gray matter. So debrief and talk it out.

Gary D.

 

[PaulChristenson]

Gary

So what do you see as a burnout rate in your part of the country??

And is it a different rate for your paid personnel vs your volunteers?

Paul in VT

 

[Gary D.]

Gary

So what do you see as a burnout rate in your part of the country??

And is it a different rate for your paid personnel vs your volunteers?

Paul in VT

I'm the wrong guy to be asking that question. For our department burnout is quite high. Around 50% of our brass was on the team at one time. For the rest of operations it has been real high. We have lost as many from the paid team as we did from the team when we were all volunteers so that part is hard to judge.

Maybe there is a stat guru out there that can put something together.

Gary D.

 

[ReefGuy]

Our Sheriff and my Mom sit on the Board of Mental Health here in Charlotte county, so there's not much chance I'll get out of it .

It only takes once to ruin your life if you can't get it out of the gray matter. So debrief and talk it out.

Gary D.