kaisers is a member of the b.c. first responders mental health committee , along with labour and employer representatives from police, fire, ambulance and the canada border services agency. across all those sectors, he said, he predicts mental-health claims “will continue going up year-over-year.”
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burnaby rcmp staff sgt. major john buis went public last year, with a feature story in the province , with his own challenges with post-traumatic stress disorder, hoping to encourage other first-responders to seek help when they need it. buis was diagnosed with ptsd in 2019, after more than four decades on the job, which included overseas peacekeeping tours, losing colleagues on the job and to suicide, and being shot and nearly killed in the line of duty as a 25-year-old mountie in 1979.
on wednesday, which marked the final day of buis’s 44-year career as a mountie, he said: “one of the philosophies i’ve had throughout my service is: ‘how am i going to help the people i serve better?’ … by doing that article , i was able to pay it forward to a couple of people, hopefully.”
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