LAKE COUNTY >> With the Valley Fire and the loss of fellow Deputy Jake Steely, the last 10 months have been some of most trying times for the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and its personnel.
“A lot of people that are outside of the profession kind of view first responders as robots that are trained to suppress their emotions are not act emotionally at all,” Sheriff Brian Martin explained to the Board of Supervisors during a meeting on July 12. “We’re humans … We process emotions just like everybody else does.”
That’s why he has enlisted the help of The Counseling Team International to provide peer counseling training for nearly 30 of his deputies this November. The company’s program will teach them to identify symptoms and aid co-workers that are having a difficult time processing emotions.
Several local charities and businesses chipped in to help fund the program.
It’s the last leg in the triad care in dealing with trauma, including professional and religious help, Martin explained. However, it is the area most lacking in the department.
“What I recognized [after the Valley Fire] is that we were missing that third component,” he said. “I’m not aware of any organized effort locally to provide peer support personnel to our first responders when it is so obviously needed.”
To avoid an additional cost to the taxpayer, the sheriff sought help from the community to cover the $14,000 expense. The response was immediate — especially from the Lake Area Rotary Club Association, which provided $10,000.
Help also came from local businesses and other organizations like Kevin Smith Construction, the Loch Lomond Road House, Black Rock Golf Course and the A to Z foundation. Along with private donors, they raised the remaining $4,000 at a fundraising event in June.
The owner of the Loch Lomond Roadhouse, Mike Dabney, said he sensed an obligation to help out.
“As a member of the business community I feel like it was my duty to contribute to help people in getting back on their, including the first responders,” he added.
Dabney and others were personally thanked by Martin with the supervisors looking on. The training begins Nov. 7 at the Blue Lakes Lodge.
“You want everybody to be healthy — emotionally, physically, psychologically — because you to be in order to do this job,” Martin said when asked about his goals as the department head. “If you’re not, you’re not going to be efficient; you’re not going to be able to serve the public, which is our duty.”
