Following a meeting on Friday, the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers (JALGO) has identified avenues to give further assistance to firefighters who are faced with mental health struggles associated with the job or their personal lives.

This, after the mental health crisis within the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) was put on full display on Monday when 35-year-old Shadane Gentles, an ex-firefighter mounted the Half-way Tree Transport Centre in St Andrew threatening to commit suicide.

READ: Suicidal ex-firefighter rescued by former colleagues

It was later revealed by Sergeant Leo Bennett, one of the firefighters who convinced Gentles to abort his plans, that the ex-firefighter had been dealing with personal and work-related issues which led to him resigning from the brigade recently. Bennett pointed to a lack of support from the JFB to combat issues as one of the reasons Gentles would have been pushed to attempt suicide.

READ: WATCH: Sergeant says lack of support from JFB led to ex-firefighter meltdown

This was at the forefront of discussions during Friday’s meeting, according to JALGO’s General Secretary Helene Davis-Whyte. She said the workers’ meeting sought to find solutions on how members of the JFB could receive much-needed support.

“We have been very successful in getting them to have psychiatric services included in the health insurance policy. The only problem we have with the psychiatric services is that they are seen as a specialist by the insurance provider and so persons can’t just walk into a psychiatrist’s office to get services, they have to be referred,” the trade union activist said.

“That is something that we are seeking now to have the discussions with the health insurance provider to see if the psychiatric services could be treated in a similar fashion as gynaecological services, because while it’s a specialist area you can actually walk into a gynaecologist’s office and the health insurance would cover your upfront and you wouldn’t have to wait to be refunded after you pay for the services. So those are some of the things that we are doing,” Davis-Whyte added.

In the meantime, Davis-Whyte disclosed that the JFB has a staff welfare position which became operational in the early 2000s but the trade union recognised that it was not sufficient to adequately handle the issues being faced by firefighters in this high-stress occupation.

She said JALGO has since petitioned to have the staff welfare position expanded into a full department to ensure firefighters can receive the help they need but that is yet to come to fruition.

“When they were establishing the structure for the Jamaica Fire Brigade, we asked and we did get them to put in place a position that dealt with staff welfare. But once it became operational, we recognised that it was not enough— it was really just a one-man team— and so we have been making recommendations for that unit to be expanded into a full-fledged department that could serve firefighters across the island, that has not yet been accomplished,” Davis-Whyte disclosed.

She further highlighted a lack of urgency on the part of the JFB management that could be further perpetuating the mental health crisis within the brigade. Davis-Whyte spoke of a case which was brought up during Friday’s meeting where an officer recognised that another firefighter was in distress and he reported it, with the hope of getting the person evaluated as he deemed the man to be suicidal. However, the officer said the issue was brought up over a month ago and nothing has been done since.

Davis-Whyte reasoned that to combat the lack of urgency from the JFB management, policies could be developed as a point of reference for senior officers when cases such as these arise.

“You don’t get a sense as well that members of the management and at the supervisory level really understand what is happening in terms of mental health. And mental health at the workplace now is a real, real issue and they don’t seem to take it seriously enough. And that, I think, is a major problem that we will have to raise as unions when we have the discussions with the management because this is the kind of information that we are getting back,” the JALGO general secretary said.

She noted that it is a stressful time for firefighters, adding that in 2024 the brigade lost several people back-to-back, some to natural causes, which has taken a toll on the members of the JFB. Davis-Whyte said this is one of the reasons JALGO has been working to ensure that counselling is readily available, including psychiatric services.