Blog - Overwatch

Checkup from the Neck-Up: Find the Right Therapist for First Responders & Veterans

First Responder mental health is critical, but it can be overwhelming just figuring out what you need and who can help. What are some important questions to consider when looking for the right therapist for you?

Health Care for First Responders

Combined Arms in Healthcare: Circle of Care

We can understand the value of serving in a team. However, how does that work in healthcare? Would that cause a breakdown in confidentiality?

Health Care for First Responders

Carrying the Colours

Rituals are not random. As First Responders or Veterans, we belong to cultures of service with strong traditions. The Colours of a regiment are an important example that served an immediate purpose in the past, but can still be considered something beyond just ceremonial today.

Grief in First Responders & Veterans

First Responder Peer Support & the Importance of Integration

Health begins at the level of crews, fireteams, or squads. It starts with the trust developed horizontally between peers and vertically with the chain of command.

Peer Support First Responders & Veterans

Morale & Collective Health

As a First Responder or Veteran, we understand the importance of unit readiness. There is a general understanding that morale plays an important component in this, but how does morale effect individual and social dimension of health?

Peer Support First Responders & Veterans

Discipline, Duty, & Dedication

What is the relationship between disciplines and the expectations of service at the level of individual members and across entire units? What does discipline have to do with mental health?

Peer Support First Responders & Veterans

Stress in First Responders & Veterans: Is it Helpful or Harmful?

As a First Responder or Veteran, you have experienced stresses very few can even begin to imagine. When our body reacts to threat, it is suppose to be acute and adaptive.

Sane in Insane Places, Anxiety & Depression in First Responders and Veterans

Tactical Vigilance or Hypervigilance?

Situational awareness allows for tactical vigilance. Being attentive and intentional is critical for identifying potential threats or opportunities and allows for rapid decision making in high-stress environments. This is not a euphemism for a symptom like hypervigilance. However, outside appropriate conditions, this protective quality can become needlessly exhausting.

Sane in Insane Places

Emotional Control and Collateral Damage

Emotional numbing can be understood as an attempt to take emotional control in high-stress encounters. A protective skill that may help prevent paralyzing fear in terrifying contexts.

Sane in Insane Places

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