Time after time we have talked about the high burnout in this business.
Some burnout because all they do is training and never get used while others burnout because of too much use. Some burnout because of the lack of activity and others because of the overwhelming amount of activity.
Burnout can creep up slowly or hit someone like a ton of bricks. It can cause a minor amount of repairable damage or it can ruin someone for life.
Dive Teams are unlike SWAT type teams where the team responds to not take a life but save one or more. But those teams have the image of wasting the bad guy and shooting everyone in their sights.
But in reality SWAT type teams save countless lives and rarely take one.
The Dive Team on the other hand rarely deals with a living victim or a victim that can be saved even though we try our hardest. It is one death after another and they are always in various stages of decomposition.
Who are the most at risk? All of us are and nobody is immune from a breakdown. It seems the more compassionate and caring you are about people the more you are at risk.
It can only take as little as one infant, small child, toddler or teen to turn your life upside down. Or it may take a dozen adults to start the self-questioning downward spiral to destruction.
The important thing is how you and your teammates deal with it and more importantly how soon it’s detected.
The team needs to be close nit. You need to know each other and how each reacts to various situations and how they normally act after an operation.
You don’t need to socialize with each other but you need to work well together, feel the others pain and join in on the healing process because very few will ever know what a PSD goes through.
Please folks do not hold it in and get any help you can. Nobody is going to think you’re a nut case for going and getting professional help if your team isn’t enough.
Gary D.
Some burnout because all they do is training and never get used while others burnout because of too much use. Some burnout because of the lack of activity and others because of the overwhelming amount of activity.
Burnout can creep up slowly or hit someone like a ton of bricks. It can cause a minor amount of repairable damage or it can ruin someone for life.
Dive Teams are unlike SWAT type teams where the team responds to not take a life but save one or more. But those teams have the image of wasting the bad guy and shooting everyone in their sights.
But in reality SWAT type teams save countless lives and rarely take one.
The Dive Team on the other hand rarely deals with a living victim or a victim that can be saved even though we try our hardest. It is one death after another and they are always in various stages of decomposition.
Who are the most at risk? All of us are and nobody is immune from a breakdown. It seems the more compassionate and caring you are about people the more you are at risk.
It can only take as little as one infant, small child, toddler or teen to turn your life upside down. Or it may take a dozen adults to start the self-questioning downward spiral to destruction.
The important thing is how you and your teammates deal with it and more importantly how soon it’s detected.
The team needs to be close nit. You need to know each other and how each reacts to various situations and how they normally act after an operation.
You don’t need to socialize with each other but you need to work well together, feel the others pain and join in on the healing process because very few will ever know what a PSD goes through.
Please folks do not hold it in and get any help you can. Nobody is going to think you’re a nut case for going and getting professional help if your team isn’t enough.
Gary D.
