JULY – Member Spotlight – The Fire Watch

Member Spotlight - The Fire Watch

The Fire Watch is a dedicated organization committed to preventing veteran suicide through proactive outreach and support.

They provide critical resources and education to veterans, their families, and communities, fostering a network of care. By empowering individuals and organizations with the tools and knowledge to identify and respond to warning signs, The Fire Watch aims to save lives and ensure that no veteran faces their struggles alone. 

Tell us about the mission of The Fire Watch? 

The Fire Watch is a Veteran non-profit that provides free suicide prevention/intervention training to individuals and organizations. We’re building a network of 10,000+ trained Watch Standers, who can be vigilant to the needs of Veterans in our community and lead them to the resources they need.  

What can individuals and organizations do to get involved to help veterans?  

Individuals can go to thefirewatch.org/watch-standers at any time and complete our free Watch Stander training course. It takes about 30 minutes for active-duty military or Veterans and about 40 minutes for those who haven’t served in the military. If organizations are interested in having their employees take the course, they can go to thefirewatch.org/veteran-safe-places and fill out a quick questionnaire and a Fire Watch employee will reply to set up an in-person or virtual training session, which takes between 45-60 minutes.  

What is the role of a Watch Stander? 

A Watch Stander is someone who has completed our training and submitted a pledge to “stand watch” for Veterans in their community. The role of a Watch Stander is to simply extend their help to any Veteran or service member they encounter by educating them to the resources they learned about in our training and hopefully lead that Veteran or service member to the help they need. We also encourage them to spread awareness, not only of our free program that’s available to anyone, but also be open to having conversations about suicide and mental health.  

What is the role of an organization as a Veteran Safe Space? 

A Veteran Safe Place is an organization whose employees have taken our training and look for opportunities to raise awareness to our mission, not only to their incoming staff or members, but to their network. By receiving this designation, these businesses show the community they’re invested in helping Veterans and have joined us in our fight to help end Veteran suicide.  

What are some warning signs of a veteran struggling with mental health? 

Because every Veteran or service member is different, there isn’t a single warning sign that applies to everyone. Depression, anxiety, and mental health crisis display differently in individuals but there are some common signs that individuals can look out for. Hopelessness, anxiety, agitation, insomnia, anger, reckless behavior, mood changes (extreme change from happy to sad or vice versa), increase in substance use (alcohol or drugs), and withdrawal from family and friends are some of the main ones. We go over these and more in our Watch Stander training found at thefirewatch.org/watch-standers.