By Diversified Rehabilitation Group
PUBLISHED IN BLUELINE.CA on May 6, 2025
May 6, 2025, Kelowna, B.C. – A month-long public awareness campaign has launched and is ‘Sounding the Alarm’ on the unprecedented human and taxpayer costs associated with a failure to adequately care for trauma-exposed first responders across Canada.
‘Sounding the Alarm’ consists of a social media campaign that will amplify the voices of first responders, clinicians and mental health advocates, while highlighting critical research that shows an escalation of harms, skyrocketing costs and a troubling inability to respond to calls for service.
“Our failure to adequately care for those who care for us is costing us dearly,” said Derek Sienko, chief mental health officer and CEO of Diversified Rehabilitation Group. “Lives are being lost to suicide and altered by severe trauma, but crippling as these impacts are, the costs don’t end there. We are witnessing an unprecedented number of disability claims across the country, with more and more first responders unable to return to work. The ripple effect for first responders and community members is palpable.”
Campaign voices include:
- Steve Farina, who served as a firefighter for more than 30 years and has dedicated his life to advocating for adequate first responder care.
- Jonathan Williams, who served as an RCMP officer for more than a decade before leaving the job he loved, due to trauma.
- Laura Kloosterman, retired Ontario Provincial Police officer and executive director of Badge of Life Canada.
- Derek Sienko, chief mental health officer and CEO of Diversified Rehabilitation Group, who is an expert in return-to-work practices and supporting first responders with psychological injuries.
The campaign highlights several barriers to healing for injured first responders, including cookie-cutter approaches to treatment, widespread stigma and a failure to adequately fill vacancies left by psychologically injured employees.
“This campaign is not about blame,” said Sienko. “It is about awareness. It is about bringing people together. It about sparking conversations that lead to meaningful change.”
