First responder support group: Lessening burden of ‘tough calls’

Anthony Thompson, left, and Mark Bailey, with the Oklahoma Warriors for Freedom Foundation, presented a training session for the Mark Twain Area Peer Support Group on Nov. 13, 2024, at the Marion County Ambulance District office in Hannibal. Contributed photo

MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

Studies show that the effects of the stress upon first responders can be lasting and even debilitating, if not treated in a timely and compassionate manner.

It is out of concern for the well-being of people who work in this field, that the Mark Twain Area Peer Support Group was formed about a year and a half ago.

Jenny Pabst-Jaworski, a dispatcher with NECOMM 911, the Northeast Missouri Dispatch Center serving Marion, Ralls and Lewis counties - joined by a few her colleagues - recognized the need, and thus formed a 911 peer support group.

Jaworski serves as team coordinator.

“When something bad happens, like a wrong way driver, line of duty injury, shooting, I’m the one who gets called” to help with team support. “I gather troops together to do a strategy about what type of intervention is needed. Professional mental health immediately? How many people do I need to call?

“What a peer team is, it is a volunteer team of first responders, who help other first responders,” she said.

“Basically, when our colleagues experience traumatic calls - sometimes it is just cumulative stress - we provide peer support, crisis intervention. It is confidential. The best person to understand what you are going through is someone who is walking the same walk with you,” she said.

“The whole point is,” to have the support of  “another dispatcher, another fireman, someone who sits in the rig with you; who takes the same calls. That’s what makes it work. Validation, from somebody who understands the job. That’s what peer support is. Permission to not be OK, from someone who has been there before.

“It is when a first responder goes through a tough call, a fatal accident, (an injury to a child), it really hits home to us. “Our peer team will step in to check on them. Listen talk, process, before stress can build up. Sitting down over coffee, a group going to lunch, sometimes a phone call in the middle of night. Hopefully none of us will have to carry the heavy call alone.”

Field experience

“First responders deal with things - over and over - that other people would never have to deal with,” she said.

She cited, as an example, an accident which took place around 1 a.m. July 24, 2025, on U.S. 61, two miles south of Hannibal.

“We all responded to this God-awful wrong-way driver call,” Jaworski said.

“What happens, 911 starts getting tons and tons of calls, that on Highway 61, (a vehicle is) northbound in the southbound lanes.

The dispatchers send out calls to any agency that might be in the area in order to ”to try to intercept the vehicle.”

“Then the (911) calls switch, the switchboard is flooded with calls of a horrific crash. The wrong-way driver hit someone head on.

“We have worked so many wrong-way driver calls, that it is a trigger point for us. We know how dangerous they are. That is special triggering, it brings up all the other calls from the past.”

And while first responders are out in the field, “putting their hands on” in the crisis situation, dispatchers are equally affected.

Dispatchers are “left with sounds of people on the phone, their emotions. The very person we are talking to is having the worst day of their life. They found their significant other not breathing, or there’s a traffic crash, or they’re seeing something horrific.

“We are left with sounds of people on the phone, their emotions. We send fire or ambulance and our job is done. We move on to the next call.”

But the stress remains.

The wrong-way driver accident was especially sad,” Jaworski said. “It was a car full of young girls, in their 20s, who were coming back from a women’s Bible retreat, or some church retreat. That made it really traumatic.

“The 911-dispatch team coordinated all these departments: Hannibal rural, Hannibal fire, multiple EMS. They landed helicopters in the middle of the highway; many law enforcement personnel; the (Ralls County) coroner. It was just a mess. You are coordinating all these things and taking calls knowing that outcome will be horrific.

“Everybody gets out there, does their job, and clears the crash scene.”

That’s when the peer support team activates, checking in on the responders.

“The next  morning, one of the dispatchers leaves work. She has to drive home past the accident scene. Pieces of these girls’ Bibles were blowing across the highway,” Jaworski said.

When Jaworski learned that, "I lost it,” she said. ”Sometimes it is too much.”

The day after the accident, the peer support group went into action. “We did a full, multi-agency debriefing. We tried to process that scene together. One-on-one counseling.

“Every story I can think of is something horrific. That is why peer support is so important. The things that we see and hear are heavy.

“Hopefully, none of us have to carry the heavy call alone.”

Accident stats

The driver traveling southbound in the northbound lanes was identified the following day by the Shelby County Herald as William W. Strausbaugh, 61, of Clarence. He received minor injuries and was transported to Hannibal Regional Hospital. He was arrested on multiple charges, including felony driving while intoxicated causing the death of another, two counts of felony DWI causing serious injuries, felony DWI causing physical injuries, traveling the wrong direction on the highway, misdemeanor driving while revoked, and no seat belt. He remains incarcerated in the Marion County Jail at Palmyra.

The driver of the other car, a 25-year-old female, and one passenger, a 21-year-old female, both of Minnesota, were transported by Survival Flight to out-of-the-area hospitals for treatment of serious injuries. A 29-year-old female from Hopkins, Minn., was transported to Hannibal Regional Hospital for treatment.

Pronounced dead at the scene was a 26-year-old female from Minneapolis, Minn.

Volunteer efforts

The Mark Twain Area Peer Support Group is an all-volunteer agency. “We have zero budget, we are not funded by any grants or government agency,” Jaworski said.

They are reliant upon donations. At their last training sessions, “We had support from so many people it was amazing. Kyle Mack Insurance, Wayne’s BBQ, Compassion Church on Munger Lane. One session Prestige Reality provided lunches, the Arthur Center at Mexico provided one lunch, and Mark Twain Behavioral Health has been so supportive.”

Jenny Pabst-Jaworski, a dispatcher for the Northeast Missouri Dispatch Center, serves as team coordinator for the Mark Twain Area Peer Support Group. Contributed photo