Portland Fire & Rescue is monitoring the health and wellness of their members as burnout and morale are impacting the current roster.
"Morale, unfortunately, is not what it used to be," Battalion Chief Ryan Johnson told KATU.com. "Our firefighters are tired, they’re worn out. Sleep deprivation is a huge issue for us," said Battalion Chief Ryan Johnson.
Licensed social worker Tara Stein was hired by the department last year and as the department's Behavioral Health Coordinator.
"Firefighters tend to have higher rates of depression and anxiety and substance use and PTSD and suicidality, and just the amount of stress that they’re experiencing on the stress continuum--it can be very high," she said.
The growing number of calls, COVID, the drug epidemic and other responses have created challenges to keep current firefighters in the ranks.
"When I came to Portland, Portland was a destination city, people don’t ever leave here. I’ve come to a point in my career with what’s happening with the city where we’re seeing people leave and go to other departments, slower departments, or leave the career altogether. That was unheard of 30 years ago," said Johnson.
In the past, 4,000 people would show up to test for Portland Fire & Rescue. Last time, John said. only 400 tested.
"They go on calls daily where they don’t know what to do with these calls, they don’t know how to help these people. We don’t have the resources and it’s not what our 9-1-1 system was built to handle," he said.
