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17 April 2026
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PTSD common in fire service, speaker tells Kentucky firefighters, USA
Wednesday morning, Jo Terry, who lost her husband, Chip Terry, to suicide in 2017, presented a group of city firefighters with a startling statistic: In a 2018 survey of emergency responders prepared by the Ruderman Family Foundation, 46.8% of firefighters surveyed reported having experienced suicidal thoughts. According to the same survey, between 14.8% and 22% of firefighters have post-traumatic stress disorder, compared with 6.8% of the general population and 11% suffer from depression.
Terry, founder of the Chip Terry Fund, is in Owensboro for three days of seminars for city, county and regional firefighters on the effects of PTSD and the importance of seeking help.
It’s a subject Jo Terry knows well: Chip Terry, a member of the command staff of the Covington Fire Department, suffered from years of exposure to traumatic events — and the accumulated impact on the brain from the regular triggering of the “fight or flight” response whenever the department responded to an emergency call.
When Chip Terry sought professional help, he was not treated for post-traumatic stress disorder, despite telling medical professionals he believed he had PTSD. He killed himself shortly after that treatment ended.
“The most common misconception you all have, and the general public has, is (PTSD) is a psychological disorder,” Jo Terry told firefighters at the Walter Freeman Fire Training Centre.
Instead, Terry said PTSD is a brain injury and that it’s “an injury (that) can heal.”
Terry said PTSD builds over time for firefighters because the stress hormones that cause it can be activated several times during a single shift. For example, the busiest OFD fire station averages seven calls for service during a 25-hour shift, Terry said.
The release shows several areas of the brain are impacted by the regular surge of the stress hormone cortisol, Terry said. “If I get one (cortisol) hit a month, that might be a lot for me,” Terry said. “You guys are being overwhelmed with cortisol.”
With firefighters, “the tones drop and you go into fight mode,” she said. “You’re getting more (cortisol) than any normal body can stand, and it’s changing your brain.”
The result is that the “fight or flight” centre of the brain enlarges over time, while areas that involve memory, spatial navigation, personality, behaviour regulation and abstract thinking are diminished.
While the brain has a system for calming a person after a fight-or-flight response, that system becomes impaired for people with PTSD, Terry said.
“When the threat is gone, this individual can’t come all the way back down,” she said. “PTSD is rarely related to one event,” Terry said. “It’s an accumulation over our lifetime.”
The symptoms are varied but include intrusive thoughts, withdrawal from family, loss of interest in activities, sleep problems, irritability or aggressive outbursts, reliance on alcohol or drugs, paranoia or a feeling of constant vigilance, flashbacks, nightmares and dangerous or self-destructive behaviours.
“Withdrawal is the most common thing I see when people call me” for help, Terry said. “We are losing more of you to suicide than to line-of-duty deaths.”
The damage comes home with firefighters.
Terry said there is a 78% divorce rate among first responders. “These are not bad marriages or bad people; it’s PTSD that invades those relationships,” Terry said.
There are treatments and advances in therapy and medicine that can alleviate PTSD, Terry said.
The state of Kentucky, through the Kentucky Fire Commission, will pay for many of those treatments for firefighters, Terry said, adding that Kentucky has the best program in the country for helping firefighters recover from PTSD. “Any out of pocket expense you incur from PTSD is covered by the state,” Terry said.
Terry said she was meeting with fire department peer support teams later this week to show them how to get firefighters enrolled for service. “Get enrolled now and maybe you’ll never use it,” Terry said.
But if needed, firefighters will already have access to assistance, she said.
Beyond medication and therapy, activities such as exercise and meditation (which can be as simple as praying or doing a Rosary, Terry said), yoga and having a hobby that can help a person decompress from a stressful day also help manage PTSD, Terry said. Talking with fellow firefighters also helps.
“Your dark humour at the dinner table after critical runs is therapeutic,” Terry said. “You all help each other.”
Source: Messenger-Inquirer
Terry, founder of the Chip Terry Fund, is in Owensboro for three days of seminars for city, county and regional firefighters on the effects of PTSD and the importance of seeking help.
It’s a subject Jo Terry knows well: Chip Terry, a member of the command staff of the Covington Fire Department, suffered from years of exposure to traumatic events — and the accumulated impact on the brain from the regular triggering of the “fight or flight” response whenever the department responded to an emergency call.
When Chip Terry sought professional help, he was not treated for post-traumatic stress disorder, despite telling medical professionals he believed he had PTSD. He killed himself shortly after that treatment ended.
“The most common misconception you all have, and the general public has, is (PTSD) is a psychological disorder,” Jo Terry told firefighters at the Walter Freeman Fire Training Centre.
Instead, Terry said PTSD is a brain injury and that it’s “an injury (that) can heal.”
Terry said PTSD builds over time for firefighters because the stress hormones that cause it can be activated several times during a single shift. For example, the busiest OFD fire station averages seven calls for service during a 25-hour shift, Terry said.
The release shows several areas of the brain are impacted by the regular surge of the stress hormone cortisol, Terry said. “If I get one (cortisol) hit a month, that might be a lot for me,” Terry said. “You guys are being overwhelmed with cortisol.”
With firefighters, “the tones drop and you go into fight mode,” she said. “You’re getting more (cortisol) than any normal body can stand, and it’s changing your brain.”
The result is that the “fight or flight” centre of the brain enlarges over time, while areas that involve memory, spatial navigation, personality, behaviour regulation and abstract thinking are diminished.
While the brain has a system for calming a person after a fight-or-flight response, that system becomes impaired for people with PTSD, Terry said.
“When the threat is gone, this individual can’t come all the way back down,” she said. “PTSD is rarely related to one event,” Terry said. “It’s an accumulation over our lifetime.”
The symptoms are varied but include intrusive thoughts, withdrawal from family, loss of interest in activities, sleep problems, irritability or aggressive outbursts, reliance on alcohol or drugs, paranoia or a feeling of constant vigilance, flashbacks, nightmares and dangerous or self-destructive behaviours.
“Withdrawal is the most common thing I see when people call me” for help, Terry said. “We are losing more of you to suicide than to line-of-duty deaths.”
The damage comes home with firefighters.
Terry said there is a 78% divorce rate among first responders. “These are not bad marriages or bad people; it’s PTSD that invades those relationships,” Terry said.
There are treatments and advances in therapy and medicine that can alleviate PTSD, Terry said.
The state of Kentucky, through the Kentucky Fire Commission, will pay for many of those treatments for firefighters, Terry said, adding that Kentucky has the best program in the country for helping firefighters recover from PTSD. “Any out of pocket expense you incur from PTSD is covered by the state,” Terry said.
Terry said she was meeting with fire department peer support teams later this week to show them how to get firefighters enrolled for service. “Get enrolled now and maybe you’ll never use it,” Terry said.
But if needed, firefighters will already have access to assistance, she said.
Beyond medication and therapy, activities such as exercise and meditation (which can be as simple as praying or doing a Rosary, Terry said), yoga and having a hobby that can help a person decompress from a stressful day also help manage PTSD, Terry said. Talking with fellow firefighters also helps.
“Your dark humour at the dinner table after critical runs is therapeutic,” Terry said. “You all help each other.”
Source: Messenger-Inquirer