After nearly three decades with the Vancouver Fire and Rescue Service (VFRS), Rod Salas was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress and Anxiety Disorders.
He says it is a daily battle even five years later.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverywhere you go, those reminders and triggers of trauma are there,\u201d Salas told 1130 NewsRadio, who is a retired VFRS captain.<\/p>\n
According to Salas, he was denied specialized trauma therapy that his doctor recommended to him, and instead, WorkSafe BC directed him into treatments he described as harmful and delayed his recovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey denied me, and so I got a lawyer, and we appealed it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving said that, we are in year two now or three since my diagnosis.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an open letter to B.C.\u2019s Premier and the Ministry of Labour, Salas is calling for the removal of what he calls \u201cbarriers to care,\u201d hoping for any kind of legislative change.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is kind of shut the door, and we are forgotten about and just go deal with your issues, and we have nowhere to turn,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
Derek Sienko, who was the chief mental health officer at Diversified Rehabilitation Group, an organisation that Salas says was paramount for his recovery, is not surprised.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to call this the way that they are. System failure,\u201d Sienko said.<\/p>\n
He says the suicide rate for first responders is three times higher than the general population and wants to see the system use a different approach for current and retired first responders.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have what it takes, but we need to be culturally sensitive, and we need to let them know that we are there for them the same way as they are there for us,\u201d Sienko explained.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Labour says Salas\u2019 letter will be shared with WorkSafe BC to help inform the work ahead to improve access to mental health supports for first responders.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirefighters are dying by suicide because of the service they put in for so many years,\u201d Salas said.<\/p>\n
CityNews has reached out to WorkSafe BC for comment, but did not hear back before the broadcast deadline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After nearly three decades with the Vancouver Fire and Rescue Service (VFRS), Rod Salas was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[163,85,46,522,523],"class_list":{"0":"post-161364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}