Brockport looks into specialized
Employee Assistance Program for emergency workers

In times of stress and everyday emotional toll, Brockport’s Chief of Police Daniel Varrenti recommends his officers and Fire Chief Gregory Wing’s personnel have access to a specialized employee assistance program (EAP). The village presently offers EAP to its employees but both Wing and Varrenti say their personnel may require specialized personnel to help with their emotional concerns.

"I’m looking into a program at Strong Hospital that is specifically designed for police and fire department personnel," Varrenti told board members at the September 16 meeting. "The program targets those suffering post traumatic stress syndrome and is also for the officers’ families as well."

Trustee Norman Knapp said the village already offers an EAP for its employees. Mayor Josephine Matela said the village’s present EAP is not tailored for the stresses fire and police personnel encounter. Varrenti also said the professionals who provide the service are available 24 hours a day, year round and they come to the site.

The county has a debriefing team, Wing said, but they "don’t always respond in a timely fashion." Wing said it is sometimes two or three days before his personnel have been able to talk to someone. "We’ve endured quite a year … accident-wise," he said.

Varrenti had negotiated a contract with Strong for utilization to his officers at a cost of $850. The program contract normally costs $6,375. He was asked by board members to talk to Strong officials and negotiate a price for offering the program to fire personnel and bring the information back to the next board meeting in October.

Wing reported that his staff has already responded to more than 813 fire calls year to date and 1,112 ambulance calls. "The ambulance calls are on line with last year’s figures but the fire calls are at the limit we reached at the end of last year," he said. "This has been a hard year."

Friday, September 13, Wing said his department responded to 15 calls in six hours. "It takes about three hours per call," he said. "We were hopping."

Because of the volume of calls, Wing asked board members to approve a six-month trial of keeping the third ambulance in service. Two new ambulances were purchased but Wing said the third rig has been called into service recently.

Trustee Peter DeToy agreed there was a demonstrated need for the third ambulance to be in service and the motion was carried.