by Ari Paul
Friends of the Firefighters volunteer and retired Firefighter Tony Catapano believes that getting a firefighter to seek professional counseling to ameliorate the emotional stress of the job is harder than it might sound.
"The problem is the brothers don't want to be stigmatized," he said last week in the kitchen of the group's small office in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn. "Firefighters have that macho way all the time."
A Growing Need for Help
But they do need counseling for trauma and emotional distress, he said, and the need has become greater even as the years since 9/11 pass. And Friends of the Firefighters faces severe budgetary constraints, and is currently struggling to find a permanent home suitable for its needs.
The modest Red Hook office space is modeled to look like the interior of a firehouse. Mr. Catapano conducts most of his conversations with firefighters seeking help in the back kitchen, as that is the forum in which they can best open up. The most he can really do is listen to their problems, and encourage them to see a licensed counselor partnering with the group.
While the Fire Department has in-house psychological services, the aim of Friends of the Firefighters is to be a confidential space where no physical records are kept of who comes in seeking help.
More Psych Cases
According to Executive Director and founder Nancy Carbone, an increasing number of firefighters have been feeling the psychological effects of 9/11 as more members become physically sick and more die. Several other firefighters have died in the line of duty since then, and many more have gone to serve in the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan. And attending to fires with high civilian fatalities adds to the stress, she said.
"It's really kind of never-ending in this job," said Ms. Carbone. "It was trauma on top of trauma."
Ms. Carbone started the organization shortly after 9/11, when several of her firefighter friends survived the World Trade Center attacks. As firehouses across the city were preparing individual memorials for the 340 firefighters who were killed, she cultivated people who wanted to assist financially in setting them up, as well as doing the legwork to get catering, buglers and bunting.
"Nancy's organization became like a clearing-house, putting the people in need with those who wanted to help together," said one Lieutenant, who spoke conditioned on anonymity.
As her network in the FDNY grew and after a couple donated office space, she partnered with Safe Horizons to offer counseling for firefighters. The group has served nearly 5,000 of them, according to Ms. Carbone. There are 10 steady volunteers and a revolving team of 50 other retired and active firefighters, in addition to outside counselors. Mr. Catapano hosts open breakfasts twice a month to establish what he calls a casual environment to help firefighters relax. The group also offers anger management sessions.
"We did the best we could with the space we had," Ms. Carbone said.
After Friends of the Firefighters failed to gain full-time access to one of the firehouses closed in 2003, several donors withdrew their support. On June 30, the group lost its funding from the Red Cross, which had amounted to $370,000 for the last six months. As Ms. Carbone explained, the group had to cancel some of its sponsored services, including acupuncture, and while it has hosted four family weekends a year for firefighters, it may have to cancel that program as well.
Double Dilemma
"Our funding now is very limited," she said.
The lack of a firehouse creates two main problems for Friends of the Firefighters. The current Red Hook office is beyond capacity, Ms. Carbone said. Last week, when a fire unit came into the office, the members filled the entire kitchen, leaving some to spill over into the hallway and forcing those inside to negotiate over who would stand or take a chair. And without a firehouse, donors will be reluctant to give money, Ms. Carbone said, putting the long-term future of the organization in question.
The group is looking at the other firehouses closed in 2003 to house to organization, as well as three other former FDNY properties that are currently vacant.
Retired FDNY Manhattan Borough Commander Harold Meyers met Ms. Carbone a few days after 9/11 and watched the group grow. He believed Friends of the Firefighters was a necessary alternative to in-house care at the FDNY.
"Although the counseling in the Fire Department is confidential, it's not really confidential, especially for someone who is in the upper echelons of the department," he said. "This is something that is totally outside the Fire Department. It has no impact on your career, so people are more likely to do it."
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