Respect Forum
Our Windsor Respect Forum was held at Royal Canadian Legion Branch 594 in the LaSalle / Tecumseh rergion. We were pleased to have 30 participants from Police Service, Police Associations, Military, Fire and Rescue, City Family Services, CMHA, United Way, Military Unit Associations, Legion Service Officers, and Chaplains. We had Councillor Kirran McKenzie from the City of Windsor greet us and compliment the gathering of many organizations in the process of networking to increase the support we give First Responders and their families who suffer from operational stress injuries. He praised the work of Respect Canada and Respect Forum for this national initiative.
Fire Chief Rick Arnel provided a presentation on the importance of networking and taking care of your personnel – the most important resource. A retired Chaplain, The Reverend (Major – Retired) Kim Gilliland discussed the importance of using Chaplains for all First Responders and ensuring that we understand the importance of spirituality in the process of taking care of our personnel. Corey Shenken discussed the great programs that the United Way provides, with an emphasis on the counselling program for those who suffer from PTSD, operational stress injuries, and/ or depresssion. WO Jeff Morrison from the E&K Scot discussed the program that the military follows with education at all levels, encouraging support to our personnel, conducting after action debriefs after critical incidents, the use of Padres and Social Workers, and the excellent support provided by Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC).
Morris Brause provided a briefing on the history and importance of the Respect Forums in Canada since 2016. He also talked about the importance of the only national mapping chart of those who provide support across Cities, municipalities, regions, provinces and national called the RESPECTMap and the need for all our agencies to put their information on this mapping service.
In the end we broke into four groups and discussed what we were getting from our forums, what we would like to see, and also what organizations still need to come to our meetings. From there, Morris Brause will take that information and recruit more organizations and plan the preseentations for the October Forum.
– Article from Morris Brause
Comments 0