Scott Wilkinson and Jennifer Lundin, Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service
Patrol Sergeant Jodi St. Amant, Winnipeg Police Service

Emergency responders possess a unique and cohesive culture.  Fire, police and paramedic personnel face death, trauma and the despair of the human condition on a daily basis, relying primarily on each other for support and for their lives.  As a group, these professionals trust mainly themselves, knowing that few others can truly understand what they experience in their careers.  It is important that mental health professionals working with this group develop an understanding of the work, the culture and the challenges that emergency responders face.

This presentation will offer a brief but illuminating view of the world of emergency responders to enhance that understanding, and to help you begin to develop the necessary trust and rapport needed to effectively help members of this community.

Scott Wilkinson

Scott is a Training Officer and a Critical Incident Stress Management/Peer Support Team Coordinator with the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service, where he has served for twenty-two years.  Prior to entering the Training Academy, Scott served as a Firefighter/Primary Care Paramedic and Fire Investigator.  Scott also spent twenty-three years with the Springfield Fire & Rescue Service, where he served as Deputy Fire Chief for ten years.

Jennifer Lundin

Jennifer is an Advanced Care Paramedic with the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service, and the EMS Coordinator for the Critical Incident Stress Management/Peer Support Team. Jennifer has been with WFPS for thirteen years, and has been a member of the CISM/Peer Support Team for eight years. She is a busy mom to two young daughters and wife to a paramedic husband.

Patrol Sargeant Jodi St. Amant

Patrol Sargeant Jodi St. Amant is in her 22nd year of policing with the Winnipeg Police Service.  She served in the Vice Division for ten years, primarily involved in illicit drugs and gang investigations; in the Organized Crime Unit and Street Crime Unit; in General Patrol in the Downtown and North End districts, and in the Professional Standards Unit for two years.  She currently is assigned to the Behavioral Health Service as a Wellness Officer, overseeing the Post-Critical Incident Program and the Wellness Program. She also volunteers as a Board member at RaY (Resource Assistance for Youth)

Chris Enns, MSW, RSW (ON, MB, SK)

When you are considering therapy for clients with a diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), do you think of Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Prolonged Exposure Therapy for PTSD (PE) or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR)?  These therapies are considered to be the gold standard for the treatment of PTSD (evidence-based practice) and can be considered to be in the domain of cognitive behavioural therapy.   This session will provide a brief overview of these three trauma-focused therapies; identify similarities between CPT, PE, and EMDR; discuss criteria to consider in selecting CPT, PE, or EMDR, from a clinician’s perspective; and highlight the context of psychotherapy in the process of recovery of clients with PTSD.

Chris Enns, MSW, RSW has been employed at Deer Lodge Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba since 1996, providing Clinical Social Work services for Canadian Forces veterans in long-term care.  He joined the Operational Stress Injury (OSI) Clinic in 2004. The OSI Clinic is one of twelve clinics across Canada that provide treatment for veterans and still-serving members of the Canadian Forces and RCMP, who have sustained psychological injury during operational duty.  He currently provides assessment and psychotherapeutic services for individuals, couples, and groups.

Chris has additional training in Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Prolonged Exposure (PE) Therapy, Emotion-Focused Couple Therapy (EFT), and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Depression.  He received certification as a therapist, supervisor, and trainer for PE Therapy for PTSD from the Centre for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety at the University of Pennsylvania.  As one of only four PE trainers in Canada, he has participated in trainings in Ottawa and Minneapolis.   He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Health Studies at the University of Brandon in Brandon, Manitoba.

Debbie Whitney, Ph.D., C.Psych.

 Has knowledge of your client’s experiences had an effect upon you?  Secondary traumatic stress (sometimes called “vicarious trauma”) can be subtle and cumulative.  It can affect attitude and energy.  In this brief workshop, there will be opportunity to learn about the effects of exposure to the traumas of others and to consider the personal effects of this exposure in your own work.  A variety of strategies intended to resolve difficulties and sustain ongoing resilience will be presented.  These strategies include introspective, active, collaborative, artistic and strategic approaches.  The goal is to help you refine a sophisticated self-care plan that will support your therapeutic work.

Dr. Debbie Whitney is the Clinical Coordinator of the Operational Stress Injury Clinic at Deer Lodge Centre and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Clinical Health Psychology, College of Medicine at the University of Manitoba.  In the over twenty-five years that she has worked as a psychologist, she has treated the effects of traumatic bereavement, interpersonal violence, sexual victimization, workplace accident and, more recently, service-related traumatic experiences of police and soldiers.  Stress resilience and work-life balance have been considerations throughout her career.  She has read the advice of others and spoken on these topics, and employed a variety of strategies over the years to develop her own stress resilience.