The care for firefighters who suffer trauma at work is seriously inadequate, according to research by the television program Zembla that was published on Sunday. Firefighters are often forced to seek psychological help themselves. They indicate that they are not properly prepared for the impact of what their work entails, including cases of drownings, entrapments, suicides and performing resuscitations.
Those who drop out of the fire brigade due to trauma will have their salaries reduced: post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is not recognized as an occupational disease. This is the case with the police and Defense.
Support point inadequate
Only five of the twenty-five safety regions have a financial arrangement for firefighters who retire due to PTSD. The national ‘Fire Service Support Point’, established in 2016, offers little relief: currently only three safety regions are affiliated with it.
The last inventory of PTSD in the fire service dates from 2018. It yielded seventeen cases. Mirjam Lommen, researcher at the University of Groningen, questions this based on international studies. She estimates the actual number to be considerably higher. “If you look at the studies that have been published, you get around 7 percent in the fire service.” Compared to the Dutch fire brigade, this would be 1,500 employees. “I think that’s a lot. Consider that those people probably all need treatment.”