{"id":861,"date":"2023-12-01T21:26:35","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T21:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/capitalchill\/?p=861"},"modified":"2023-12-01T21:39:50","modified_gmt":"2023-12-01T21:39:50","slug":"firefighters-call-on-city-to-provide-more-mental-health-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/capitalchill\/2023\/12\/01\/firefighters-call-on-city-to-provide-more-mental-health-support\/","title":{"rendered":"Firefighters call on city to provide more mental health support"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The head of the union representing Ottawa firefighters says the city must invest in more mental health support for its members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are at a heightened risk of developing mental health injuries,\u201d said David Andr\u00e9, president of Ottawa Professional Fire Fighters\u2019 Association, Local 162. \u201cWe believe investment in the form of mental health specialists will pay for itself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a public delegate at Friday’s emergency preparedness and protective services committee, Andr\u00e9 spoke on behalf of 960 full-time firefighters for the city. He said his association would like Ottawa Fire Services to have a dedicated mental health specialist who could work on prevention by offering resiliency training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cIf the chief says, ‘You know what, we really need this investment,’ then I would be inclined to support it.\u201d<\/p>\nCoun. Riley Brockington<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A new hire would help relieve the burden on the training division, made up of 12 individuals, which is \u201cunder more pressure every year to deliver more, with the same number of staff,\u201d Andr\u00e9 said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to Andre\u2019s account, Barrhaven West Coun. David Hill said at the end of the meeting that he plans to put forward a motion to city council to hire a devoted mental health specialist for the fire department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Committee chair Coun. Riley Brockington, who represents River ward, said he wants to hear more from Ottawa fire, specifically the chief, on the current situation before he would support the motion. \u201cIf the chief says, ‘You know what, we really need this investment,’ then I would be inclined to support it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The committee heard from three public delegates and city staff before approving its portion of the city’s 2024 draft budget. The committee is currently looking at a $259.4 million budget for 2024, representing a $12.7 million increase from this year. City council will vote to approve the budget on Dec. 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The largest planned budget increase overseen by the committee is directed at Ottawa fire, which is setting aside $2.2 million for a new fire station for Kanata North and South March and $4 million for equipment renewal, including a transition to battery-powered equipment where possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city’s paramedic services will get the second largest piece of the pie. It will receive $2.4 million to hire new paramedics and $503,000 for equipment and vehicles, including greener emergency response vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The emergency preparedness and protective services committee’s budget is increasing for all of its services. The largest portion of allocations are being given to Ottawa Fire Services. [Table \u00a9 Justin Fiacconi]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Though he supported the budget, Brockington didn’t pass up a chance to ask the head of the paramedics about offload time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The service’s offload delay at local hospitals got worse this year compared to 2022, Chief Pierre Poirier told the committee. \u201cOverall, it\u2019s been a difficult year for us,\u201d the chief said. \u201cOur call volume is up. Our responses are up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city plans to hire 23 new paramedics for each of the next three years. According to Brockington, this is not sufficient to bring down response times, due to paramedics being \u201cstacked up at hospitals\u201d waiting to offload their patients to hospital staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said it’s up to Ontario’s Ministry of Health to increase resources in emergency rooms and hospitals so that paramedics can have a faster turnaround. \u201cI\u2019ve been on council for nine years,” Brockington said, adding “offloading delays has always been an issue.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He attributed the crux of the issue to the province-wide challenge of having a population that is both increasing and aging. \u201cIt’s like a double whammy for us here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The head of the union representing Ottawa firefighters says the city must invest in more mental health support for its members. \u201cWe are at a heightened risk … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/capitalchill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/capitalchill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/capitalchill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/capitalchill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/capitalchill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=861"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/capitalchill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":906,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/capitalchill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861\/revisions\/906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/capitalchill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/capitalchill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/capitalchill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/capitalchill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}