Free webinar on peer support for public safety

Zetron will host a free webinar on ‘Integrating Peer Support for Public Safety Emergency Services Professionals: Benefits and Challenges,’ on Friday, 15 January at 5:00 am AEDT.

The webinar will be led by Pam Opoka, ENP, Regional 911 and Commander Level Peer Support Program Planner, Mid-America Regional Council; JC Ferguson, Commander, Austin-Travis County EMS; and Alice Johnson, Director, Business Development, NG9-1-1, Zetron.

“2020 presented new challenges for virtually everyone and hit our critical first responder communities especially hard as they stood strong on the frontlines through the unrelenting impacts of a global pandemic, widespread civic unrest, natural disasters and more,” said Irene Amundson, Director of Human Resources at Zetron.

“The job of public safety professionals is taxing in a good year, so finding new and creative ways to support them during this particularly challenging time inspired Zetron’s wellness webinar series.”

In Part 1 of the Zetron Wellness and Peer Support series, now available to view on demand, participants learned the importance of developing and implementing a support program for both the first responder and the first responder’s family, regardless of agency size.

During the upcoming webinar, participants will learn how to successfully develop and tailor sustainable wellness programs that provide critical support to public safety professionals.

Part 2 will dive deeper, reviewing important long-term benefits of establishing structured wellness and peer support programs, as well as revealing common obstacles to setting up a resilient program and ways to overcome them. Webinar attendees will learn how to:

• set the foundation: survey the state of the agency and start a small wellness program;
• develop internal agency values, find partners and leadership supporters;
• showcase the benefits to individuals and the agency as a whole;
• be prepared for the probable challenges and change management requirements.
   

“While we’re not in the wellness services business, the enduring health and wellbeing of the public safety professionals using our solutions has always been a vested interest at Zetron,” said Alice Johnson, Business Development Director, NG9-1-1 at Zetron and a webinar presenter.

“In many years of working inside emergency communications centres, I’ve personally experienced the benefits of well-run wellness programs and how powerful they can be for successfully recruiting, retaining and improving the work-life happiness and performance of emergency services teams.”

What: Integrating Peer Support in the PSAP: Benefits and Challenges

When: Friday, 15 January at 5:00 am AEDT

Registration: Online

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Andrey Popov