Nova Scotia firefighter and former Royal Canadian Navy member Derrick Lang spent years struggling to receive the care he needed for his Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) diagnosis.
He suffered in silence, spending hours staring at the wall dissociating, with no idea where to turn.
But after being connected with a veterans program in BC and finding hope through healing, Lang is paying the healing forward with a new online peer support group for first responders, organized by himself and Halifax area Firefighter, Rachel Dent-Flynn.
“That’s a horrible way to have to live. If I can help one person [not] do that and feel alone during that experience, then I’m doing what I’m supposed to do, I believe.”
The group meets Friday evenings via online video conferencing and focuses on sharing resources, rather than sharing stories of trauma. The group is open to any first responder needing support for PTSD, including veterans, paramedics, firefighters, police officers and correctional officers.
Lang wants it to be a space where people can come and find resources that are desperately needed in Nova Scotia, he says.
“Access right now to a psychologist could take you a year to even get connected with somebody. Most clinicians have a huge waitlist – especially anyone that deals specifically with trauma.”
One perk of the meetings being online, Lang says, is that people can join from anywhere, and there’s always the option to leave your camera off until you’re comfortable enough to speak.
The group – which had four people join its first meeting – grew quickly after word got out. By the time it celebrated its one-month anniversary on April 22, Lang says they had about 25 first responders attending.
While the group is still in its infancy, Lang hopes that the presence of groups like this will help provincial governments across the country see the need to put programs in place for first responders.
“We’re all heroes but we’re all human; we all feel and we’re put in situations where we’re seeing and dealing with stuff that most people don’t have to deal with. Sooner or later, it affects everybody.”
Anyone interested in coming to a meeting can reach out to Derrick Lang or Rachel Dent-Flynn on Facebook to get the private meeting link.
