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Durham Strategic Plan Dashboard

Shared Economic
Prosperity

Create a Safer Community Together

Connected, Engaged, and Inclusive Communities

Innovative and High Performing Organization

Thriving and Vibrant Environment

Status Indicator: In Progress | On Hold | Complete/Ongoing

Initiative: 2.33 Evaluate, assess and propose additional support for healthy and engaged public safety employees

Creating a Safer Community Together

Description

This initiative will (1) ensure public safety employees have defined pathways to address any incidents of trauma, stress, or burnout; and (2) Increase overall focus on public safety wellness and reduce stigma related to obtaining support; and (3) Increase staff retention and growth in the public safety sector. 

Key Measures & Data Analysis

National % w/ Mental Health Concerns

Why is it important?

According to Kaiser Perm, there is an increase in risk associated with working in public safety.  

  • Police officers and firefighters are more likely to die by suicide than line of duty 

  • 85% of first responders have experienced symptoms related to mental health conditions 

  • Depression and PTSD are up to 5x more common in first responders. 

This initiate will seek to change these trends by creating a model program to build on local evidence, innovation, and evidenced-based research practices. This initiative will create a major impact on enhancing the health and wellness of public safety employees. This can reduce the prevalence of mental health trends among staff and the collateral consequences that may be associated with untreated health needs that could range from impacts on performance to worsening relationships with peers to harm to community members, self and external stakeholders. As a result, the initiative aims to improve overall wellness and increase retention and job satisfaction. 

What have we been doing?

We created a First Responder wellness workgroup focused on this initiative.

  • This group, consisting of personnel from across the public safety portfolio, was established to foster a shared understanding of the needs of those working within the 911 Call Center, Fire Department, Police Department and Community Safety Department. The primary objective is to research, identify, and propose potential wellness initiates that would enhance the overall well-being of those first responders. 

      We have formed a partnership the Harvard Kenedy School's People Lab. 
  • This lab specializes in working with municipalities and has specific experience working with first responders. They will focus their efforts on measuring and addressing wellness, burnout and PTSD among the city's first responders. Once the lab gathers the research they require, they will work with us to identify specific wellness interventions and recommendations for our first responders.
  • Over the past several months we have been working with People Lab to finalize a data-sharing agreement that will enable them to capture and measure wellness-related traits. This group has also been developing and finalizing a survey tool to collect the identified wellness information.  
 
Researching long-term funding sources that would provide additional wellness support to public safety portfolio staff. 
  •  Our workgroup has been conducting research on best practices in addressing burnout and wellness within the national first responder community. Many municipalities have begun employing staff dedicated to providing crisis support and conducting critical incident debrief trainings. We have begun to research long-term funding sources that would allow the city to hire for similar positions. 

What's next?

First Responder Wellness Workgroup 
 
Our workgroup will continue to meet on a monthly basis to review the work completed by People Lab and identify alternative needs and solutions to the wellness needs of First Responders. We will continue to research and propose additional wellness tools for first responders. Furthermore, the group aims to identify a sustainable funding source for additional clinical staff dedicated to each first responder department. These staff members will provide immediate crisis support and facilitate connections with long-term community providers. 
 
Our partnership with People Lab 
In the coming months we plan to a survey that will allow People Lab analyze wellness traits among all staff within the public safety portfolio. We will then collaborate with People Lab to review the synthesized data and identify possible interventions that can be implemented across the portfolio. 
 
After implementing these interventions, we will conduct periodic pulse surveys to measure their effectiveness. Based on the survey results, the interventions will be refined, and additional measures will be implemented as needed. 

City Website Home Page: Durham, NC | Official Website (durhamnc.gov)
Budget Website Page: Budget & Management Services Department | Durham, NC (durhamnc.gov)

Budget and Management Services Department
Office of Performance and Innovation
Strategy and Performance Division