The Oklahoma First Responder Wellness Division just launched a new campaign to help prevent first responder suicides.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper and director of the wellness division, Chance Tuttle, recently spoke with KRMG about a new campaign called “Not One Mor,” which is aimed at reducing first responder suicides. The “e” is left off the word “More” to represent the absence left when a first responder dies by suicide. It’s meant to keep the conversation going.
September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and the program provides first responders with tools to handle the stresses of the job.
Tuttle said criminals aren’t the main reason for first responder deaths.
“(First responders) are twice as likely to take our own lives than to be murdered by a bad guy,” Tuttle said.
They also have a phone number first responders can call when they feel depressed, and they can talk to someone familiar with the culture.
“We like first responders taking care of first responders,” Tuttle said.
The organization is also working with the medical examiner, going back 15 years, to look at first responder suicide data, and it will be a national model for how these types of programs run.
The Oklahoma First Responder Wellness Division is a state division within the Department of Public Safety dedicated to protecting and strengthening first responders’ wellness across Oklahoma.
Tuttle, a Sapulpa graduate, is still a state trooper but is focusing mainly on the wellness division.
