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First responders prepare to launch CISM Team
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A group of Washington County first responders and mental health professionals have formed Responder First Initiative, a response team to help first responders that encounter traumatic situations. [Responder First Initiative]
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Members of “Responder First Initiative,” a team that will be available to first reponders who face traumatic incidents, include, from left, Dan Harvey, Deputy director of Public Safety for Washington County; Tiffany Vargo, AHN Canonsburg prehospital services paramedic director; Scott Dolan, Deputy Director of Public Safety for Washington County; Chartiers Township Fire Chief Robert Fetty; Healing Bridges CEO Natalie Ross, and Sheila Renz, volunteer for Canton Township Emergency Management.
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A Responders First Initiative is being launched with a grant from the Staunton Farms Foundation. The team will provide mental health assistance and support to first responders who have been impacted by traumatic incidents.
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A team of Washington County first responders is getting closer to launching a Critical Incident Stress Management Team to help law enforcement, firefighters, and other first responders who face traumatic situations on the job.
Healing Bridges, a nonprofit behavioral health organization, in collaboration with the Washington County Department of Public Safety, has received a $179,574 grant from the Staunton Farms Foundation to develop the “Responders First Initiative.”
“We will be getting a CISM team together once we are able to get them trained,” said Natalie Ross, CEO of Healing Bridges and a member of the Responders First Initiative board. “It’s huge. If it saves one life from suicide, if it changes someone from having PTSD down the road, or from going through a divorce, then it will be worth it.”
The two-year grant will help fund efforts to select, train, and certify up to 40 people to be part of the CISM team, which is made up of volunteers that include trained peers – active or retired police and law enforcement officers, firefighters, EMTs, 911 dispatchers, and other first responders who have a first-hand understanding of what their fellow first responders go through – and trained mental health professionals.
The CISM team will be dispatched to respond to traumatic events – a mass casualty, the death of a child, a 911 call that ends tragically – to help first responders cope with the emotional, psychological, and behavioral impact.
Ross first got the idea to form a CISM team after she received a phone call from a distraught EMS worker who had responded to a fatal motorcycle accident involving a 15-year boy in April 2025.
She learned about CISM, and helped form the Responders First Initiative.
The CISM board is seeking first responders or licensed masters level mental health clinicians who are interested in volunteering for the team.
A three-day training is tentatively scheduled for mid-November, and is affiliated with the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation.
Dan Harvey, deputy director of public safety for Washington County and Responders First Initiative board president, said it is critical to invest in the mental health of first responders.
“As first responders, we invest significantly in equipment and training, and if a piece of equipment breaks, we make it a priority to get it fixed. We need to invest in our first responders the same way,” said Harvey, who also serves as an advanced EMT and is a firefighter with the Bentleyville Volunteer Fire Department.
“There are different kinds of stresses involved in this job than in other type of work. I’ve missed my kids’ birthdays and holidays, and you can’t get that back. There is a real need in this county for help for our first responders, and we want to put mental health in the forefront and make sure we are addressing the mental health needs of first responders so they can do their jobs. Sometimes, it’s not one incident but a stack of incidents that happen over time, and that stress builds over time.”
Additionally, the grant funding will cover one-day training for a peer team leader selected from each department or precinct, who first responders who are struggling can go to for help, guidance and support. The training, called “Boots on the Ground,” will be led by Dr. Sheila Roth, a renowned psychologist and social worker who counsels first responders and is affiliated with the Allegheny County CISM Team.
The grant also covers the cost for 200 licenses or links to the Corsica Wellness app, a mobile platform designed for first responders that provides 24/7 access to mental health resources, anonymous self-assessments, and tools for high-stress situations.
Ross noted that stigma remains a barrier for many first responders that prevents them from reaching out for help, and the app provides access to the CISM team, peers, and mental health materials and resources for first responders who are not necessarily ready to pick up the phone or speak to someone directly.
The funding also will be used to provide scholarship funds for first responders who need mental health treatment but do not have the financial means to obtain treatment.
Responders First Initiative is forming a nonprofit in order to offer its services to multiple agencies and to secure grants and host fundraising events to help cover ongoing costs including membership fees, training, and other expenses beyond the two-year period.
The group also is planning to host community outreach events in upcoming months.
Ross noted that CISM teams began forming in the early- to mid-1980s.
“They’ve been around for a long, long time, and having something available here to first responders here in Washington County is going to be tremendous for the future,” she said.
Anyone interested in being a part of the CISM team, donating to the project, or volunteering in other ways can contact Ross at 724-225-6940 or Natalie.ross@myhealingbridges.org, or Sheila Renz, public relations manager for Canton Township’s emergency management and a member of the Responders First Initiative board, at sheilarenz@comcast.net.