Firefighters and first-responders are heralded for their courage and unwavering commitment to protecting the public from all types of disasters. In their devotion to this duty, they are exposed to any number of tragedies that can take a toll on an individual's mental health and emotional well-being. Without the proper resources, these events can potentially lead to post-traumatic stress and manifest themselves in a number of behavioral health issues for firefighters and first-responders.

In response to this need, over the past several years, the California fire service has been actively engaged in building a robust behavioral health strategy as part of a holistic approach to care for firefighters and first-responders performing their duties.

Here, a wide-range of behavioral health resources are listed and made readily available to firefighters and first-responders by directly linking them to each respective organization's webpage. As part of the broader objective, FIRESCOPE is developing training and qualification standards, organizational guidelines, and an ordering process to assist the California fire service in properly integrating a behavioral health component into the Incident Command System.