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Each fire season, wildland firefighters risk their lives to protect our forests and communities, and Weyerhaeuser recognizes the impact fighting these fires can have on the mental health of first responders and their families. For the fourth year, Weyerhaeuser has partnered with Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance to help provide specialized support and mental health resources for wildland firefighters. Addressing mental health challenges without stigma is critical to keeping firefighters safe, and the Fighting Fires Together campaign is designed to provide an important platform to amplify education and resources available for wildland firefighters and their families in the Pacific Northwest.

“After launching the Fighting Fires Together campaign with FBHA four years ago, we’re proud to continue this effort to support wildland firefighters and their mental health as they work in challenging conditions to protect our communities,” says Bill Frings, vice president of Western Timberlands for Weyerhaeuser. “Weyerhaeuser was an early leader in wildfire protection more than a century ago, and we continue to invest in cutting-edge technologies and ongoing training to improve our wildfire preparedness, prevention and mitigation strategies. As wildfire season has grown longer, we understand how critical it is to ensure wildland firefighters have access to the resources they need to carry out this important work.”

Fighting

Fires Together

Mental Health Tips & Resources

Resources focused on behavioral health awareness, prevention and strategies to provide wildland firefighters and their families with an easily accessible and confidential source of information.

How Family & Friends Can Offer Support

Find resources to help when communicating care and concern, as well as addressing the stigma of seeking behavioral support.

Community Groups & Resources

Finding a like-minded community or support group is an important tool for improving mental health.

News & Stories from the Front Lines

Coverage on the Mental Health Impacts of Wildland Firefighting and Weyerhaeuser’s efforts in the Pacific Northwest.

Mental Health Tips & Resources

Firefighters risk their lives to protect our forests and communities, and the stress of wildland firefighting can have a significant impact on mental health. The following resources can help support frontline firefighters and their families.

  • First Responder Behavioral Health Video Series: Focusing on topics affecting wildland firefighters, Firefighters Behavioral Health Alliance has created a video series based on their workshops for first responders.
     

FBHA Part 1: Introduction

FBHA Part 2: Cultural Brainwashing

FBHA Part 3: Cognitive Disconnect

FBHA Part 4: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
 
FBHA Part 5: Moral Injury
 

 

  • Self-screening: This self-assessment serves as a suicide screening for firefighters. The assessment can serve as a general tool for checking on overall mental health.

  • Professional Directory: Partnering with an occupationally aware mental health professional can be critical to getting the right support. Below are counselors who have been vetted by FBHA and the National Volunteer Council in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia.

British Columbia

Oregon

  • AgriStress HelpLine is a free, 24/7 hotline for Oregon's agricultural and forestry communities, including farmers, ranchers, fishermen, foresters, and their families. Call or text: 833-897-2474

  • Matt Coffey, MA, LPC-A, Beaverton, 360-726-1605

  • Dr. Stephanie M. Conn, Beaverton, 971-250-1519

  • Craig Deardorff, MSW, LICSW, Beaverton, 971-727-4197

  • Cheryl Kolevzon, LCSW, Medford, 541-292-0403

  • Drew Prochniak, MA, LPC, LMHC, Portland, 503-308-9408

  • Michael Cady Russell, MS, NCC, LPC, Portland, 503-683-2341

  • Nadine Dody, LPC, Redmond, 541-699-2915

  • Andrew Barram, Psy. D. Bend, 541-388-3592

  • Rikki Davlin, LCSW, 208-505-6951 (available for telehealth in OR)

  • Emma Schutte, LMHC, 319-930-9247 (available for telehealth in Oregon)

  • Mindy Sutton, MA, Newberg, 503-217-4144

  • Mikaylee Dato, LPC, Oregon City, 503-342-8196

Washington

How Family & Friends Can Offer Support

Communicating Care and Concern

  • Create a communications network made up of other spouses, partners or family members to support each other.

  • Acknowledge the power of being positive. First responders live in a world filled with negative actions and images. Having a positive home life can improve behavioral health.

  • Be patient and understanding when communicating. Reword or rephrase to avoid being confrontational.

  • Discuss setting a structured time-out. Allowing family members to reacclimate themselves back to home life is important. 

  • Be direct. If something doesn’t look or feel right, be direct with your loved one. First responders live in a world of receiving direct information to attack problems.

  • Challenge with compassion and do not be afraid to point out discrepancies. First responders and their families cannot accept the “I’m okay” answer. Use compassion in your phrases and your tone of voice.

  • Internal size-up. First responders should ask themselves why they are acting or feeling a certain way on a daily basis. Partners and spouses can assist with this by expressing what emotions were experienced that day, and how it affected each other and other members of the family.

Addressing the Stigma of Seeking Behavioral Support

  • Stigma of asking for help. There are incorrect assumptions that asking for help shows weakness and goes against our culture. Asking for help when you need it is a good thing — for you, your co-workers, your family and your community.

  • Stigma of counselors lacking knowledge about the job. Some think that because counselors never fought a fire and don’t understand what we do, that they can’t help us. That’s not true. Counselors don’t have to understand everything we do in order to help us address our behavioral health.

  • Stigma of saying something wrong. Some firefighters have had very little training in behavioral health or suicide awareness and may be afraid to say something wrong. It’s okay if you don’t know all the right words. You can still ask for help and help others.

  • Stigma of unavailability. Some avoid seeking help because of a perceived lack of access to counseling services or culturally competent resources. However, groups like the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance are available to help.​​

  • Additionally, FBHA, along with Elizabeth Anderson-Fletcher, Ph.D., and Chaplain Mark Schimmelpfennig, M. Div., have released a report designed to help educate firefighters on the prevalence and effects of Moral Injury. As the fire service culture has begun to recognize the effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, an emerging issue firefighters face is moral injury, which occurs just as often. Moral injury is a relatively new term in EMS circles, with signs and symptoms that can mirror those of the more widely recognized PTSD – even though they are distinctly different conditions. Moral injury generally results from a major conflict in one’s moral code that causes a negative response, such as having to prioritize who can be saved and who cannot. Education about its effects is critical to help individuals normalize their own unique, personal reactions.

Community Groups & Resources

The following groups are committed to providing safe support systems for wildland firefighters.

British Columbia

  • Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Center of BC: 988 
    Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Centre of BC provides free, confidential support 24/7 to those in need. Online chat service: www.CrisisCentreChat.ca (Noon to 1 a.m.)
  • Crisis Services Canada: 988
    Provides suicide prevention and support 24/7 to those throughout Canada.  
  • BC Professional Fire Fighters Association 
    Counseling services, treatment facilities, and peer-based programming resources.
  • BC Responders Mental Health  
    Provides mental health resources for firefighters, paramedics and law enforcement officers.  
  • Honour House Society 
    Honour House is a refuge, a “home away from home” for members of the Canadian Armed Forces, veterans, emergency services personnel and their families to stay, completely free of charge, while they are receiving medical care and treatment in the Metro Vancouver area. 
  • First Responder Health  
    Database of occupationally aware healthcare providers located in British Columbia (and across Canada) 
  • Wounded Warriors Canada 
    As a mental health service provider, they provide a range of clinically facilitated programs specifically developed to support the unique needs of veterans, first responders and their families. Programs support individuals, couples, spouses, surviving spouses and children of those who serve or have served our country and communities. 
  • First Responder Psychology 
    Provides articles and tips on first responder resiliency.  
  • HeadsUpGuys 
    Online, anonymous resource specifically designed for men and their families, to support mental health and prevent deaths by suicide. 
  • HeretoHelp  
    HeretoHelp is a group of seven leading mental health and substance use nonprofit agencies offering resources to those located in B.C.  

Oregon and Washington

  • National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988
    Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress in addition to prevention and crisis resources.  

  • TEXT: 741741. Type in “Badge” in the subject line. Trained crisis counselors are available 24/7 to assist first responders and their families with behavioral health needs. Crisis Text Line uses instant text messaging for those who find it difficult to ask for help. 

  • Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance 
    A nonprofit organization formed in 2010 to assist firefighters, EMS, dispatchers and their families in times of crisis. FBHA will find resources free of charge to assist those in need. 

  • Wildland Firefighter Foundation 
    Wildland Firefighter Foundation focuses on helping families of firefighters killed in the line of duty and assists injured firefighters and their families. 

  • 6th Alarm 
    Provides peer support and resources for fire, law enforcement, EMS and dispatchers.

  • Oregon Suicide Prevention 
    The Oregon Suicide Prevention website, hosted by Lines for Life, is a source of free information and support on suicide prevention specifically for first responders and healthcare providers.  

  • Code 4 Northwest: 425-243-5092 
    Provides free, 24/7 confidential support to those within the first responder and critical care family.

News & Stories From the Front Lines

Coverage of the Mental Health Impacts of Wildland Firefighting

Weyerhaeuser and Wildfire in the News

Image of smoke from the Lane 1 fire in Oregon. The sun is reflecting against the smoke, making the sky on the left side of the image appear very orange. A helicopter can be seen on the right side of the image.

Teamwork Saves Oregon Tree Farm From Serious Damage

Image of the smoke billowing above the tree line during the Holiday Fire of September 2020.

Our Wildfire-Affected Tree Farms in Oregon Look to the Future — and Work Together for Support

Image of the aftermath of the Riverside and Beachie Creek fires. THe foresground shows a man wearing protective gear standing among a burned out grove of trees that overlook a river.

After Labor Day Fires in 2020, Monumental Effort to Plant Nearly 15 Million Seedlings Wraps a Full Year Early