KINGSTON REGION FIRST RESPONDERS FIRST IN ONTARIO TO RECEIVE TRAUMA RESILIENCY TRAINING
KINGSTON – Wounded Warriors Canada is proud to announce that members from Kingston Police, Belleville Police, Frontenac Paramedics, Gananoque Fire, Rideau Lakes Fire and Kingston Integrated Care Hub are the first services in Ontario to complete the Wounded Warriors Canada’s Trauma Resiliency Training (TRT).
Developed at the University of Victoria by Dr. Tim Black and Alex Sterling, the Trauma Resiliency Training curriculum has been designed to speak to the lived experiences of trauma-exposed professionals in a way that participants recognize how the work they do impacts them. Participants learn that traumatization is not an inevitable consequence of exposure to trauma but rather an ongoing risk of the job that, when managed, reduces the likelihood one will be injured.
Scott Maxwell, Executive Director of Wounded Warriors Canada, commented, “This is another milestone moment for public safety in Ontario. Trauma Resiliency Training is an innovative program that encourages organizations to make trauma-exposure management the new professional standard. We continue to see that once members better understand trauma, they want increased education and tools to manage post-trauma responses. We commend these organizations for their leadership in aspiring to a higher standard of mental health support for their members.”
Dr. Tim Black commented, “Trauma-exposed professionals of all kinds work under conditions where both physical and psychological injury are accepted and well-understood risks of the job. As such, TRT is designed to provide individuals in trauma-exposed organizations with knowledge, skills and tools to help mitigate the risk of on the job exposure to traumatic events leading to traumatization – simply put, exposure to trauma in these professions is inevitable but traumatization doesn’t have to be.”
Kingston Police Chief, Antje McNeely, commented, “Developed as a Train-the-Trainer program, participants learn the fundamentals of Trauma Resiliency Training from professionally trained facilitators in the 3-day program. During this time the participants learned the TRT peer-based platform, received coaching on presentation skills, as well as practiced the delivery of the course content so that the information is conveyed clearly, consistently and coherently in classroom settings. We are very fortunate to have our new trainers able to deliver the Wounded Warriors Canada TRT curriculum to members in their own organizations to become more trauma informed.”
