BC Daniel DeGryse Chicago (IL) Fire Department
Classroom Session:
Wednesday, April 21, 10:30a.m. 12:15 p.m. Rooms 138-139.
“Suicide Needs To Be Discussed”
“If fire chiefs, union officials, and fire departments as a whole don’t start and continue to address behavioral health issues in the fire service—depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), trauma, alcohol and drug addiction, anxiety, and suicide—we cannot expect personnel issues—accidents, line-of-duty deaths (LODDs) and so forth—to go away on their own,” declared Battalion Chief Daniel DeGryse of the Chicago (IL) Fire Department. He presented the classroom session, “Behavioral Health Issues in the Fire Service,” on Wednesday, April 22, 10:30 a.m. 12:15 p.m., in the Indiana Convention Center, Rooms 138-139.
FDIC International Education Director Bobby Halton briefly visited the class, emphasizing the importance of the topic to today’s fire service, and thanked DeGryse for his pioneering work in this field. Halton urged attendees to educate themselves on the issues involved and to take appropriate action.
“I’m very excited and humbled at being accepted as a speaker,” said DeGryse, fire-time attendee and a first-time FDIC International instructor. “From what I hear— the sheer number of attendees, the quality of the speakers—the conference is amazing,” he commented.
According to DeGryse, a co-worker encouraged him to address behavioral health, saying that suicide in particular must be discussed. Although he has presented on the topic at conferences across the United States, “As my clinical counterparts have said, in the field of psychology, we are still learning, and so am I. So every presentation is a little different as learn more and new information.”
“We must face the issues head-on as we do any fireground scenario if we are to change the landscape,” DeGryse insisted. “It is our responsibility as men and women in charge to do something about the issue of behavioral health.”
