Former responder stresses self-care at conference

When Grady Stephenson first received the call about a collision on the Trans-Canada Highway near Carberry, he said it was nothing out of the ordinary.

“It’s been 50 years of issues at that intersection. So that was nothing new,” the former deputy chief of Carberry and Cypress-Langford Fire Department said on Friday during his presentation at the Brandon Emergency Services Conference at the Keystone Centre.

As he got closer, he saw a plume of smoke coming from the burning bus, with vehicles and people everywhere, and recognized the gravity of what he was dealing with.

“I’m sitting there looking out the window of the truck, and I just stared at it,” he said.

“That was my holy-shit moment … The only way I can describe it is it was a scene out of a movie.”

Now, two years later, Stephenson finds it healing to share his experience dealing with the aftermath of the June 2023 Carberry crash that claimed the lives of 17 Dauphin seniors, who were on a bus to the Sand Hills Casino.

Stephenson was one of the 14 speakers at the conference, which is the first of its kind in Brandon. The four-day conference wraps up this afternoon after another full day of speakers.

In the weeks and months following the crash, Stephenson said the fire department held debriefs to check in with members.

“I can’t stress the importance of debriefs enough. Having that safe space to share with people who know what you went through is very, very important,” Stephenson said. “You can’t just assume that everybody’s doing good, even if they tell you that they are.

“Knowing that you’re there together and that you’re supporting each other is really important.”

Stephenson said simply keeping busy isn’t a solution but instead a way to mask what someone is really feeling.

“You just try and do all these things … and all you’re doing is trying to push that off so you don’t have to feel what’s going on mentally within yourself,” he said. “I was guilty of that.”

One week after the collision, Stephenson said he received another report of a collision on Highway 5 north of Carberry.

He said if he hadn’t had to drive through the intersection to get there, it probably would have been a long time before he went back.

“But if you don’t get back on the horse, then you’re probably never going to, right?”

Stephenson said the moment he realized he needed to get help was in September 2023, when he responded to a structure fire.

He said he responded to the scene with a junior who had only been on the job for a few weeks, and Stephenson entered the building by himself. That’s when he realized that he was either going to get himself or someone else hurt.

A few weeks later, Stephenson took a leave of absence.

He said he took seven weeks off, started seeing a counsellor and was prescribed sertraline to help with his anxiety and depression.

He said that while the medication didn’t address the root of his struggles, it helped him get to a point where he believed he could better address them.

Stephenson said Project Resilience 911 — a mental health resource group for first responders, front-line workers and military personnel — has been “instrumental” in his recovery and shared some of their research.

He said the general public has a one to three per cent chance of being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, while firefighters and paramedics have a 13.5 and 24.5 per cent chance, respectively, of receiving the same diagnoses.

“That shows us that we need to be looking after ourselves,” he said. “It’s really, really important that we’re setting ourselves up for success and that we’re not waiting until it’s too late to engage in some of these things.”

This is why debriefs, peer support and self-care are important, he said, adding that self-care can look like fishing, hunting, pickleball or anything that makes someone focus on themselves rather than everything going on around them.

He also said that organizations that focus on their employee’s well-being get a “pretty good return,” since it increases productivity and reduces absenteeism.

Stephenson encouraged first responders to reach out to him, Project Resilience or anyone they feel comfortable talking to if they are going through something. He left his and Project Resilience’s contact info on the screen.

Stephenson is now the CAO of the RM of Dauphin and said he is happy with his career change. But he hasn’t decided whether he will one day return to working in a fire department, he told the Sun.

For now, he said he can truly say he is doing good and plans on continuing to work with Project Resilience to provide other first responders with resources and reduce the stigma around the topic.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com