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First responder peer support is crucial. While it can be rewarding, being a first responder is also one of the hardest, loneliest, and most stressful jobs around. What many people don’t know is that substance abuse and suicide occur at dramatically higher rates within first responder professions—and, because they are used to helping rather than being helped, first responders may be slow to seek treatment and feel out of place in a general rehab program. With support from their own peers, on the other hand, many first responders do well in treatment and are able to make a solid recovery.
What explains this dynamic? Why is peer support so critical for first responders in rehab? Peer recovery specialist Bev Perez answers these and other questions with a rare blend of no-nonsense professionalism and disarming vulnerability. The retired police officer leads peer support groups in FHE Health’s treatment program for first responders (“Shatterproof FHE Health”).
When we connected for a recent interview, Perez had just finished one of her groups where she addresses “coping skills, mental fitness, and suicide awareness and prevention.” We began the conversation by talking about her role as a peer support specialist….
What’s the Role of a Peer Support Specialist in Rehab?
Perez described her role as one of connecting and building relationships with other first responders about “things we’ve seen on the job.”
“I also try to be the ‘welcome wagon’ when they first get here,” she added. Then she went on to explain just why that welcome is so important:
“When you arrive, you’re strip-searched, and your cellphones are taken away. As first responders, you’re used to doing this, so to now have it done to you is a very vulnerable place. My job is to welcome them and make them feel comfortable. I let them know that this process will be uncomfortable and that we understand it is uncomfortable. This validates them … If they’re new, I’ll come and shake their hand and let them know I’m there to support them and am a peer as someone in the profession. I try to assure them that we are here.”