Are those with an OSI/PTSD the only ones who need support?

Family & Friends need support too

Being the caregiver or support for someone with OSI sometimes means facing battles of your own. Feelings of isolation, lack of support or understanding are common traits often shared among family members. Just as it is important for the person with OSI/PTSD to receive the supports they need to heal, it is equally important for those in a caregiver role to also receive support and resources.

We often hear caregivers say they are not the ones who need support, it is the person with the OSI/PTSD who does. When someone in the family has an injury, the entire family is affected and therefore may need support of their own. Sometimes it's about taking care of yourself so that you have the capacity to help them take care of themselves. We are not suggesting you get help instead of them, however, if they are not yet ready to reach out for support, it may be necessary for you to gain these skills for your own well-being in the hopes they do reach out.

The role of the caregiver is not a singular role as it would be in a clinical setting. The caregiver is also potentially a parent, financial earner, has a home to take care of, and is part of a team when their partner is injured. Even if life before your partner was injured came with fewer points of stress, that has probably changed and responsibilities that were once shared may now be yours alone. That is its own type of stress and comes with understandable struggles.

Getting help for yourself as you help someone else allows you to have the resiliency to withstand the challenges you will all face together as you move through recovery. In recovery, your partner will most likely be able to take back some, all, or different responsibilities as they are healing. However, since this is a time of challenge for EVERYONE involved it is in everyone's best interest (partners, children, teens, family, close friends) to seek out whatever support is right for them whether they have PTSD or not.

Now just to be clear, it is important when considering your own health as a Caregiver, to understand what the other person is going through. OSI/PTSI can occur when a person directly experiences or witnesses a traumatic event. It can also happen with repeated exposure to traumatic events and details as with OSICAN’s target group; military, first responders, 911 dispatchers, corrections, tow truck drivers, and all public safety personnel. But while that person is going through an OSI like PTSD, you as a caregiver cannot ignore what you need as it is just as important for both of your recoveries.

“The spouse or partner of the person with OSI (Operational Stress Injury) is usually the first one to notice a difference in their behaviour or changes in attitude. It is important for them to understand what their loved one is going through, of course, but the most important is for them to get the support they need. This has been a huge missing piece so far. We help give the tools necessary for the self-care they need while being of assistance in the recovery of their loved ones with OSI.”

– Julius Brown, Provincial Director for OSI-CAN

We offer understanding, hope, knowledge, strength and encouragement.

For Further Detail:

Read up on PTSD or OSI in the OSI-CAN Manual

Our family and friend group’s target demographic: The spouses/partners, family members and close friends of former and serving members of the Canadian Armed Forces, Allied Armed Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Frontline Protectors --- which include Municipal Police Services, CN Police Services, Emergency Medical Services, Fire Protection Services, Wildland Firefighters, Hospital Trauma personnel, Nurses, Social Workers, Animal Control Officers, Coroners, Indigenous Emergency Management, Victim Services Personnel, Emergency Communications Specialist, Corrections Officers, “Volunteer” First Responders, Conservation Officers, Aboriginal Emergency Services personnel, Tow Truck drivers who clean up accident scenes and their spouses/partners. This demographic was chosen due to the commonality of experiences they share through the service they provide to the country and community. We have a special interest and support volunteer first responders as they are not eligible for programs such as Workers' Compensation.

Trauma-Informed

Adopting trauma-informed practices can potentially improve patient engagement, treatment adherence, and health outcomes, as well as provider and staff wellness. The term ‘Trauma-Informed’ has become an important term in care and healing practices. There is some belief that treatment is enough if it treats the injury in front of them but as our knowledge of trauma deepens we become more aware of its impact. We now know that sometimes care must be taken in helping those who have suffered a traumatic experience. Trauma-informed care shifts the focus from “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?” A trauma-informed approach to care acknowledges that health care organizations and care teams need to have a complete picture of a patient’s life situation — past and present — in order to provide effective health care services with a healing orientation.

Clinicians are in a helping profession because they recognize that people are important, their stories are important and want to maximize the difference they can make in that person’s life for the better. Trauma-Informed Care as a principle indicates that it is more than the clinicians that need to be aware of their effects on patient care. It is just as important for every staff member, from clinicians to maintenance and administrative personnel to be aware of the impact their words and behaviours may have on patients.

Trauma-informed care seeks to:

• Realize the widespread impact of trauma and understand paths for recovery;

• Recognize the signs and symptoms of trauma in patients, families, and staff;

• Integrate

knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices; and

• Actively avoid re-traumatization with the help of a patient being in the center of their recovery

Trauma is a difficult topic for discussion in most cases but during the treatment process it becomes even more difficult as people have to process the event out loud with another person not of their profession. These experiences come from exposure to an incident or series of events that are emotionally disturbing or life-threatening with lasting adverse effects on the individual’s functioning and mental, physical, social, emotional, and/or spiritual well-being.

Experiences that may be traumatic include:

• Exposure to tragedy and trauma or perceived threats to life in the course of your operational duties

• Chronic exposure to potentially traumatic events in your profession

• Loss of the feeling of having the support of colleagues or management in dealing with trauma within your profession

• Feeling that your own personal morals are at odds with the duties you have to perform in your profession

Personal exposure to:

• Physical, sexual, and emotional abuse

• Childhood neglect

• Living

with a family member with mental health or substance use disorders

• Sudden, unexplained separation from a loved one

• Poverty

• Racism, discrimination, and oppression

• Violence in the community, war, or terrorism

We at OSI-CAN do not see PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a Disorder, we see it as an Injury you can recover from. If you are suffering from the symptoms of an Operational Stress Injury, then a PTSD or PTSI diagnosis is not required to get our help!

OSI-CAN Target Demographic The target demographic of OSI-CAN are but are not limited to: former and serving members of the Canadian Armed Forces, Allied Armed Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Frontline Protectors --- which include Municipal Police Services, CN Police Services, Emergency Medical Services, Fire Protection Services, Wildland Firefighters, Hospital Trauma personnel, Nurses, healthcare Workers, Social Workers, Animal Control Officers, Coroners, Indigenous Emergency Management, Victim Services Personnel, Emergency Communications Specialist, Corrections Officers, “Volunteer” First Responders, Conservation Officers, Aboriginal Emergency Services personnel, Tow Truck drivers who clean up accident scenes, Persons who in the performance of their jobs are exposed to criminal acts of Trauma like Prosecutors as one example, and their spouses/partners. This demographic was chosen due to the commonality of experiences they share through the service they provide to the country and community. We have a special interest and support volunteer first responders as they are not eligible for programs such as Workers' Compensation.

Leave the Diagnosis to the Doctor

For people who experience a psychological injury like PTSD, there is a need to figure out exactly where it stems from. The thought is usually that if we can figure out the WHY of the injury, we can figure out the HOW of fixing it.

Unfortunately, we don’t always get it right and that could prove harmful in many ways. Let’s consider for a second a common physical injury like a twisted ankle. We can know how it happened if pain is immediate and sometimes, we can fix it on our own, and sometimes we need professionals to figure out the exact nature of the injury such as: are the muscles just pulled or are they detached? Are the bones intact? This is what determines the best course of rehabilitation. Simply having a “sore ankle” could mean a lot of different things.

Now consider that analogy to the psychological injury. If we decide that our injury MUST HAVE come from something recent or a major event in the distant past, we focus our efforts in recovery on that. But what if its deeper or more varied than that? Or maybe what you are attaching your symptoms to was the most recent trauma, but not what is actually the cause of what you are now going through? The thing is we don’t “know” which is why we need to involve people that can help us to figure that o

ut. We need to involve our doctor and mental health professionals the same way we would go to the hospital and see the proper type of physician for the nature of a physical injury.

Making a self-proclaimed diagnosis or decision as to the cause of our injury can have a significant impact on the type of treatment we receive and what types of care we are eligible for.

Presumptive Legislation is there so that the working “presumption” stemming from a diagnosis of PTSD is that it is related to your work unless proven otherwise. It is important to remember that if we, in the heat of crisis and injury, declare the injury caused by what is essentially a best guess, it may affect what types of treatment initially recommended by our doctors, the types of care, and how we reduce our exposure to what is causing us harm. The answer to what is causing this and what we need are not generally straightforward. Often it's the exposure to multiple potentially traumatic events that cause PTSD in our professions and not a single incident. This could mean there are many layers that need to be worked on to help us recover. If you make a statement as to the cause of the injury prior to your work with a psychologist, that statement can lead to denials if a WCB claim is initiated. A potential reason for denial would then be information on record counter to what you discover in treatment. This is why there is legislation in place, so that in the moment of a psychological crisis, you are given the time and resources to heal. To explore with your psychologist or psychiatrist what you are going through and your treatment options before having to come up with answers.

In taking time to heal and understand without committing yourself to the cause of the injury, it's sometimes the best and only gift the present YOU can give to your future YOU. To not go down the rabbit hole by trying to figure it out alone and potentially deny yourself the resources you need to heal. This is where the insight of the doctor aids in your recovery.

For Further Detail:

Our target demographic: The target demographic of OSI-CAN are but are not limited to: former and serving members of the Canadian Armed Forces, Allied Armed Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Frontline Protectors --- which include Municipal Police Services, CN Police Services, Emergency Medical Services, Fire Protection Services, Wildland Firefighters, Hospital Trauma personnel, Nurses, Social Workers, Animal Control Officers, Coroners, Indigenous Emergency Management, Victim Services Personnel, Emergency Communications Specialist, Corrections Officers, “Volunteer” First Responders, Conservation Officers, Aboriginal Emergency Services personnel, Tow Truck drivers who clean up accident scenes and their spouses/partners. This demographic was chosen due to the commonality of experiences they share through the service they provide to the country and community. We have a special interest and support volunteer first responders as they are not eligible for programs such as Workers' Compensation.