For chiefs, officers and peer-support leads
Department toolkit.
Three things a department can start using this week without a budget, a vendor or a committee: a check-in script, a shift-briefing message, and a plain explanation of gatekeeper training. No login, no form.
Clinician review: in progress1 · The check-in
How to ask a partner the direct question.
This is the whole skill. It takes three minutes, it works in the bay or in the cab, and the only way to get it wrong is to not do it.
- Pick the moment, and pick them.
After a bad call, after a few weeks of them being off, after you noticed something. Not in front of the crew. Not over the radio.
- Say what you saw.
"You've been quiet since that call Tuesday." "You haven't been at the gym." Specific and plain. No diagnosis, no speech.
- Ask how they're actually doing.
"How are you really doing? Not the fine answer." Then shut up and let the silence sit. Count to ten if you have to.
- If it's heavy, ask the direct question.
"Are you thinking about killing yourself?" Those words. Asking directly does not put the idea in anyone's head; it tells them you can handle the answer.
- If yes: stay, and get a second person.
Don't leave them alone. Call 988 or Safe Call Now (206-459-3020) together. Loop in a chaplain, peer-support lead or officer they trust. Means safety matters: ask what's at home and help make it safer tonight.
- If no: thank them, and follow up anyway.
"Thanks for being straight with me. I'm going to ask again next week." Then ask again next week. The follow-up is the part that makes it real.
"Hey. Got a minute? You've seemed off since the rollover last week, and I'm not going to pretend I didn't notice. How are you actually doing?"
"…"
"Okay. I'm going to ask you something straight because I'd want you to ask me. Are you thinking about killing yourself?"
2 · The briefing
Ninety seconds at shift change.
Read it as written or in your own words. The point is that the officer said it out loud, in front of everyone, so nobody has to be the first to bring it up.
"One more thing before we go. Nobody on this crew has to carry a call by themselves. If a call sits with you, say something to me, to your partner, to anybody. If you notice somebody's off, ask them. The direct question is fine. I'd rather have the awkward conversation than the other one."
"988 works for us too, call or text. Safe Call Now is staffed by firefighters and cops: 206-459-3020. Both are confidential and neither one calls the chief."
"That's it. Let's go."
Say it the first shift of every rotation for a month. Then once a month. It stops being weird faster than you'd think.
3 · Gatekeeper training
What QPR is, and why it fits the fire service.
QPR stands for Question, Persuade, Refer. It's a short gatekeeper course, usually one to two hours, that teaches ordinary people to recognize warning signs, ask the direct question, persuade someone to accept help, and connect them to it. It's the same idea as CPR: you're not the doctor, you're the person who keeps them alive until the doctor.
It fits the fire service because it's short, it's practical, and it doesn't ask anyone to be a counselor. Everybody in the room already knows how to act in the first ten minutes of a bad situation; this is that, for a different kind of emergency.
Your Axx Matters is working toward offering gatekeeper training built for fire, EMS and dispatch. Until then, QPR is widely available: the QPR Institute runs online and in-person courses, and many Utah counties and EAPs offer it. Ask your EAP or county health department first; it may already be free to you.
Start here
- One officer per shift takes QPR this quarter.
- The briefing above goes in the first shift of every rotation.
- The Rough Shift card goes on the station board and in the family newsletter.
- Somebody owns the follow-up. Not a committee, a name.
- Tell us what you did. We'll put your department first in line for the fire/EMS version.
youraxxmatters.org/toolkit · Your Axx Matters · You are more than the job.