Intern Insight- Gary- Week 3

As a student when I went through high school I was always told not to drive intoxicated for the obvious reasons. But the schools I went too showed 1990’s videos with horrible actors and the videos were easier to laugh at than it was taking them serious. Well, in week 3 of my time at Cumberland County Public Safety I attended a mock accident at Carlisle high school. The driver’s education teacher had the students who were soon attending their prom watch emergency responders (fire fighters, police, ambulances, and even a medevac helicopter) perform their responsibilities at a fake crash. This mock accident was the closest you could ever get to a real accident, and I think it was great to see a school take steps like this to help their students understand the consequences of driving drunk. I think the students at high schools who see these types of mock accidents will always get more out of it than they would videos.

For most of the week I have been working on a project about post-traumatic stress disorder and how it affects responders and dispatchers. For those who don’t know, Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an emotional illness that is classified as an anxiety disorder and usually develops as a result of a terribly frightening, life threatening, or otherwise highly unsafe experience. Because those who work as a dispatcher are exposed to constant traumatic events, or go through a series of traumatic events they could begin to develop PTSD. I think this project is important because dispatchers work 12 hour shifts and they deal with traumatic calls every day. I have been trying to come up with different activities that can be done to help dispatchers cope with the everyday events, and how they could lower their stress levels. PTSD and the way it affects dispatchers is one of the biggest lessons learned in my time at Cumberland County Public Safety.