With legs bent like sprinters in starting blocks, arms thrust forward and necks twisted toward the fluorescent lights of the Kansas City Missouri Police Academy, a group of first responders was focusing on breathing and forgetting about work.
In the world of emergency response, people are beginning to realize that victims and their families are not the only ones scarred by accidents and violent crime. The helpers themselves can suffer what is now known as “secondary trauma” from the stresses and gruesome details that accompany their jobs.
That’s something Capt. Darren Ivey knows firsthand as commander of the police department’s Crisis Intervention Team, which specializes in handling situations in which mental illness might be a contributing factor.
[For more of this story, written by Kelly Cordingley, go to http://www.flatlandkc.org/news...nsas-city-community/]
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