KSHB 41 reporter Claire Bradshaw covers eastern Jackson County, including Blue Springs and Independence. Share your story idea with Claire.
When a line of duty incident like what happened to Lee's Summit police officer Jared Timbrook occurs, how do police and fire departments ensure the mental health of its first responders is prioritized?
Rachel Murdock is former FBI and a licensed professional counselor. She owns Beyond the Storm Behavioral Health in Blue Springs. Beyond the Storm has contracts with multiple agencies to do regular mental health check-ins, as required by Missouri state statute 590.192.
"I think it's so important that the people that are protecting our citizens and our community are solid and in a good place mentally, not only for themselves, but for the best response that we as citizens can expect," said Murdock. "If I call 911, I want the people that come to me to do their best, and so we want to be able to support them all around."
Outside of the mandated check-ins and mental health prevention work Murdock does with the departments, she is also on-call for crisis response. She said she and the nonprofit FRST Midwest are currently supporting the Lee's Summit Police Department following the shooting of Officer Timbrook.
Murdock said Beyond the Storm and FRST Midwest work with the individuals involved in the incident and the department staff overall. Whether it is seeing if people need meals, support, counseling, etc, they work on a plan and debriefs for around 30 days following. She said signs that someone isn't processing the events well or prioritizing their mental health can be trouble in sleeping, increased alcohol use or marital issues.
The prevention and response are to work on breaking down the stigma of mental health being a weakness.
"The old message used to be kind of like, suck it up buttercup, like you signed up for this, and you are not supposed to share if you're struggling," said Murdock. "That narrative has shifted, and now we're telling people that it's really important that when you are exposed to traumas day in and day out, that you leave space for, you know, figuring out if you need some support related to those things."
She said it isn't abnormal for other first responders in other departments to also feel affected by line of duty injuries and death, even if they didn't know those involved.
"It's also okay to say, you know, every time I put on my vest, I'm feeling a little hyper vigilant now, because I'm certain that those individuals that were working a few nights ago did not expect that things were going to happen the way that they did, but it's always a risk," said Murdock.
Beyond the Storm has contracts with:
- Lee's Summit Police Department
- Lee's Summit Fire Department
- Central Jackson County Fire Protection District
- Blue Springs Police Department
- Oak Grove Police Department
- Belton Police Department
- South Metro Fire Department
- Harrisonville Fire Department
