As veteran firefighters have known for perhaps decades and new members are only starting to fully grasp, a career in the fire service sets the table for unique physical and psychological challenges — challenges that can ultimately impact the job, not to mention life outside of work. Over time, exposure to traumatic incidents, unpredictable schedules, disrupted sleep and the cumulative strain of operational tempo combine to impose significant risk on mental wellbeing.
Mental readiness is not simply a “nice to have” — it’s foundational to safe, effective and sustainable performance.
Without it, decision-making suffers, resilience declines and the likelihood of burnout, substance misuse or even suicide increases.
Merely being aware of mental health risks is no longer enough; fire service culture must enable functional and applied mental health literacy so individuals and crews can recognize, respond and recover proactively.
Departments that treat mental readiness as operational readiness — not an afterthought — gain a strategic advantage: They maintain stronger personnel, lower unplanned attrition and build an organization capable of mission-ready performance when the call comes.
Practical application
Ensuring personnel are mentally ready means weaving mental health readiness into everyday operational practices, not restricting it to an annual training block.
- Integrate mental resilience training into routine drills and shift work. Teaching techniques like controlled breathing and post-incident cognitive checks help responders manage acute stress responses on scene. Tactical breathing or slow-paced exhale methods have been shown to restore executive functioning under duress, helping firefighters remain effective when adrenaline is surging.
- Build and sustain peer support and behavioral health access programs tailored for fire service culture. Research shows that while many departments offer employee assistance programs (EAPs), only a minority of personnel trust or use them because the offer is generic, access is constrained, or stigma remains high. A credible, well-promoted program that understands fire service realities and is consistently supported by leadership becomes a force-multiplier for mental readiness.
- Cultivate psychological safety within crews and commands. Leaders who model vulnerability, invite open communication after critical incidents and create inclusion reduce stigma and enable early identification of stress or decline. Departments reported that cultural barriers — “strong firefighter” ethos, fear of showing weakness — still hamper help-seeking. Embedding mental readiness practices into station life (shift-end debriefs, check-ins after major events, scheduled downtime) shifts mental readiness from the margins to the core of operations.
Action items
To support mental readiness operationally, fire service leaders should take the following steps:
- Clearly communicate that mental readiness is as important as physical readiness — include it in mission statements, training agendas and evaluations.
- Ensure training goes beyond awareness and to build mental health literacy: Teach recognition of distress, coping tactics and peer-intervention protocols.
- Evaluate and adjust the EAP, peer support and behavioral health access programs, and confirm they are firefighter-specific, easy to access 24/7 and trusted by personnel.
- Incorporate structured debriefs or after-action reviews following both traumatic and routine calls, and monitor for cumulative stress exposure rather than only dramatic incidents.
- Train and empower supervisors and line officers in mental health first responses, spotting early signs of decline, fostering open conversations and reducing stigma.
- Build station-level practices that support psychological safety — peer check-ins, open-door leadership, visible modelling of help-seeking and periodic mental-wellness rounds.
- Adjust schedules and duty assignments to prioritize recovery, ensuring adequate sleep opportunities, rest periods after major incidents, and reduced extended shifts when feasible.
- Monitor indicators of mental readiness decline (sleep disturbance, increased irritability, substance use, withdrawal) and tie them to actionable support, not punishment.
- Include families and household support in readiness programs, recognizing that the fire service lifestyle affects home life and that readiness extends beyond the station.
Mission Ready: Every responder, every time
Serving in public safety is not easy. Over time, many employees face job-related physical, emotional and psychological challenges — issues that often manifest in clues long before they become full-blown conditions.
Don’t miss the webinar “5 Warning Signs in Personnel Behavior,” presented by Dr. Jaime Brower and David Baker, on Tuesday, Nov. 18, at 11:15 a.m. PST. The session will highlight the five signs that can signify problems lying in wait, plus proactive strategies for monitoring personnel and steps leaders can take to intervene before the signs lead to adverse outcomes. It’s part of Lexipol Connect 2025, a virtual conference delivering insights, tools and strategies to achieve Total Readiness across people, operations and leadership.
Register now for Connect 2025 — and move your personnel from reactive to ready.
