LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A new mental health app is providing services to emergency workers and responders across the Las Vegas valley.
It's called psySTART and it was rolled out by the Vegas Resiliency Center as part of their Responders Wellness Program.
"It's the first of its kind here in Southern Nevada," said Tiffany Oba, Responder Wellness Coordinator. "It gives responders first-hand access to doing a self-triage for their own mental health needs. It lets them identify some of the triggers they may be having, helps identify some of the issues that may not be present and forefront for them but it gives them that tool and provides direct access to services and programs that we have in the valley."
Oba added that provided resources like this is important due to the high rates of suicide in the emergency worker community. According to a new report from researchers at the National Violence Death Reporting System, 676 first responders committed suicide from 2015 to 2017. Researchers also stated that job problems, physical health problems, and intimate partner problems were the most frequent contributing factors.
It's a trend that Oba said the Vegas Resiliency Center working to reverse.
"We don't want them to suffer in silence," Oba said. "We want to put as many tools and services in place so we can prevent some of those suicides. They deal with high levels of trauma and see things that most of us don't see in a lifetime. They see them on a daily basis. We just want to help with some of their issues, some of their trauma, and some of the things that they have a hard time decompressing."
The app is live now and Oba said it's available for any emergency worker or first responder in the valley.
"That includes emergency response workers, anyone who works in a hospital, any security staff, police, firefighters," Oba said. "Anyone who directly responds to emergencies has access to the app."
The Vegas Resiliency Center and Responder Wellness Program is open from Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can learn more about the app and the program here.
