Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley co-hosted a “First Responder Resiliency Conference” Monday and Tuesday for first responders in Santa Barbara County.
The event, funded by the Michael Armand Hammer Foundation and the Santa Barbara Police Department Foundation, brought in speakers from across the country to discuss programs supporting mental health and helping create support services for first responders after traumatic events.
Conference chairs included DA Joyce Dudley, Chief Investigator for the DA’s Office Pat Clouse, Retired Santa Barbara Police Department Sgt. Mike McGrew, and Dr. Brett Wilson of Cottage Hospital.
Dudley says they will be sending out questionnaires to all the departments who participated asking what practices they have in place to assist first responders after traumatic events and programs they would like to see developed.
Ninety people in the EMS community, including police chiefs, fire chiefs, representatives from AMR, and clinicians from local hospitals, were in attendance.
