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Answer the Call
In crisis or thinking about suicide? Call or text 988, or text HOME to 741741. Free, 24/7.

Saving lives shouldn’t cost them their own.

A companion site to “Risk a Lot, to Save a Lot,” a persuasive speech by Joshua Bonyak, firefighter and speech & debate competitor, 2026–2027 season.

Write to Congress Find support for responders

The call that didn’t end

On a Wednesday night, a critical alert comes in for a suicide attempt. There’s no time to stop for gear, so Joshua races there in his pajamas, lights and sirens on. Inside the house, a father clings to him, sobbing, asking if he knew his son.

After the call, Joshua asks his lieutenant if they can talk. The answer is two words. Then the lieutenant walks away.

“Deal with it.”

For too many firefighters, EMTs, and dispatchers, that is still the only mental health plan they get.

The risk, side by side

The U.S. has roughly 4.6 million first responders. Compared with the general public, firefighters face far higher rates of suicidal thoughts and behavior.

General publicFirefighters

Sources: Stanley et al., Journal of Affective Disorders (2015); U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Aug. 28, 2025).

The problem

Trauma from the job doesn’t stay at the scene. It becomes illness, and it follows responders home.

First

Serious mental health conditions

After responding to a Halloween car crash that killed children, firefighter and EMT Cory Thayer couldn’t leave the call behind. It replayed in his mind, kept him awake, and piled on top of years of bottled-up pain until he was diagnosed with depression and PTSD.

14.3%of first responders facing routine job trauma have PTSD, according to a July 2025 Clinical Psychology Review meta-analysis of 138 studies.

First responder mental health specialist Tammy Damron reports working with responders struggling with anxiety, sleep disturbance, mood disorders, unhealthy coping, and thoughts of self-harm. The people trained to stay calm in our worst moments carry those moments home.

Second

Suffering that spills over

676U.S. first responders died by suicide over a three-year period. Only 25% of them had received mental health or substance use treatment (UTHealth Houston, April 2025).

The damage reaches families too. A 2024 study of 200 married or cohabiting firefighters linked relationship dissatisfaction to significantly higher PTSD, depression, anxiety, and alcohol use. Through the Fire Family Collective, a firefighter’s wife named Heather describes supporting her husband after his suicide attempt while caring for their three children through anxiety, stress-related illness, and financial uncertainty.

Why it happens

911 dispatcher Ty Wooten pushed down a traumatic call early in his career. Years later it resurfaced as anxiety, panic attacks, and depression. His story points to two causes.

First

A culture that rewards silence

Responders are trained to stay in control during emergencies. That control becomes dangerous when it never switches off after the call ends.

Public safety has been “raised in a culture that equates silence with strength and vulnerability with weakness.”
Jason Fox, paramedic, EMS World (2025)

When strength means silence, responders who know something is wrong may still believe asking for help makes them weak, unreliable, or unfit for the job.

Second

Too few providers who understand the job

A 2024 U.S. Fire Administration report warns that fire and EMS personnel often face mental health provider shortages. Even where providers exist, many lack the training to understand public safety work.

So when responders finally reach out, too many find nowhere to go, or help that doesn’t understand what they do.

What we can do

Change starts when a community decides that support is part of the job. We can make that shift two ways.

First

Pass the Lifeline for First Responders Act

This bipartisan bill would create the first federal grant program dedicated to first responder mental health. Fire departments that provide EMS, EMS agencies, and 911 dispatch centers could use it for:

  • suicide prevention and confidential counseling
  • peer support and stress reduction
  • services for spouses and children
  • training that reduces stigma

It would especially help volunteer, rural, and underfunded departments build support they can’t create alone.

Write to Congress Read the bill
Second

Bring proven organizations into departments

Nonprofits are already doing this work. The Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance runs behavioral health workshops for fire, EMS, and dispatch organizations, with a focus on suicide prevention and support for families. ResponderStrong offers responder-focused resources, programs, and support.

Share these groups with your fire board, city leaders, or county officials, and push for training before the next crisis.

See the resources
They risk their lives answering the call for us. It’s time we answer the call for them.

The next time a first responder answers someone else’s worst moment, they shouldn’t have to hold it in and “suck it up.” They should know they don’t have to.

Send your note to Congress
Works cited
  1. Arena, A. F., Gregory, M., Collins, D. A. J., Vilus, B., Bryant, R., Harvey, S. B., & Deady, M. (2025). Global PTSD prevalence among active first responders and trends over recent years: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 120, 102622. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2025.102622
  2. Damron, T. (2026, August). Interview by Joshua Bonyak about first responder mental health [Personal interview].
  3. Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance. (n.d.). Remembering our brothers and sisters. https://www.ffbha.org
  4. Flores-Thorpe, S., Zhang, Y., Handler, K., Brand, K., Menendez, T., van den Berg, A. E., & Hoelscher, D. M. (2025, April 8). Mental health conditions in first responders. UTHealth Houston School of Public Health. Link
  5. Fox, J. (2025, August 4). Breaking the stigma: Changing the culture of silence. EMS World. Link
  6. ResponderStrong. (n.d.). ResponderStrong. https://www.responderstrong.org
  7. Stanley, I. H., Hom, M. A., Hagan, C. R., & Joiner, T. E. (2015). Career prevalence and correlates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors among firefighters. Journal of Affective Disorders, 187, 163–171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2015.08.007
  8. Thayer, C. (2025, January 12). Navigating PTSD as a first responder: Cory’s story. HeadsUpGuys. Link
  9. U.S. Congress. (2026). H.R. 10116: Lifeline for First Responders Act. 119th Congress. https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/10116
  10. U.S. Fire Administration. (2024). Fire service mental health and wellbeing. FEMA. Link
  11. Ventura Fire Foundation. (2026, March 17). One family’s journey through PTSD and healing. Fire Family Collective. Link
  12. Watford, A. (2026, May 5). When the helpers ‘feel helpless’: First responders get a boost in mental health support. Stateline. Link
  13. Zegel, M., Leonard, S. J., McGrew, S. J., & Vujanovic, A. A. (2024). Firefighter relationship satisfaction: Associations with mental health outcomes. American Journal of Family Therapy, 52(4), 404–417. https://doi.org/10.1080/01926187.2023.2209338

Write to Congress

Ask your representative and senators to cosponsor the Lifeline for First Responders Act. It takes about three minutes, and offices do count every message from constituents.

  1. Fill in your detailsYour note builds itself as you type. Change any wording you like.
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Support for firefighters and first responders

For responders, their families, and the departments that want to do better by them.

988

If you need help right now

Call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, any time. Prefer texting? Text HOME to 741741 for the Crisis Text Line. If someone is in immediate danger, call 911.

Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance

For fire, EMS, and dispatch organizations

Runs behavioral health workshops for departments, with an emphasis on suicide prevention and awareness, and tracks firefighter and EMS suicides so they aren’t forgotten. It also points responders and families toward help.

Visit ffbha.org

ResponderStrong

For responders, families, and agencies

Offers resources, programs, and support built specifically for the realities of emergency response work, including material for leaders building wellness programs in their own departments.

Visit responderstrong.org

Project AWARE

Mental health awareness, training, and connection to services

Connects communities to mental health training, awareness programs, and behavioral health services. Programs like it show how training people to spot warning signs, and knowing where to send someone, can change outcomes.

Learn about Project AWARE
Want these in your department? Share this page with your fire chief, fire board, city council, or county officials and ask one question: what’s our plan for the next hard call?

The Lifeline for First Responders Act

A bipartisan bill introduced in both chambers of the 119th Congress in 2026. Below is a plain-language summary, followed by the full text as introduced in the House.

House bill
H.R. 10116, introduced Aug. 17, 2026
House sponsors
Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-OR), with Reps. Gabe Evans (R-CO), Sharice Davids (D-KS), Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ)
Senate bill
S. 4819, introduced June 17, 2026
Senate sponsors
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO)
Funding
$7.5 million a year, fiscal years 2028–2032
Status (Sept. 2026)
Introduced; House version referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

What it does

It creates an EMS and First Responder Wellness Grant Program, run by the Office of Emergency Medical Services at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Fire services that provide emergency medical services, EMS agencies, and 911 dispatch centers could apply. Grants could pay for:

  1. Evidence-based stress reduction and mental health services
  2. Suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention services
  3. Confidential counseling, peer support, and behavioral health services
  4. Family support services for spouses and children
  5. Outreach, stigma reduction, education, training, and technical assistance

Endorsed by groups including the International Association of Fire Fighters, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians, NAMI, and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Ask Congress to pass it H.R. 10116 on Congress.gov S. 4819 on Congress.gov Official PDF

Full text

H.R. 10116, as introduced in the House (IH). Source: U.S. Government Publishing Office.

119th CONGRESS
2d Session

H. R. 10116

To amend title 23, United States Code, to establish an EMS and First Responder Wellness Grant Program, and for other purposes.

In the House of Representatives

August 17, 2026

Ms. Salinas (for herself, Mr. Evans of Colorado, Ms. Davids of Kansas, and Mr. Kean) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

A BILL

To amend title 23, United States Code, to establish an EMS and First Responder Wellness Grant Program, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Lifeline for First Responders Act”.

SEC. 2. EMS AND FIRST RESPONDER WELLNESS GRANT PROGRAM.

(a) In General.—Chapter 4 of title 23, United States Code, is amended by inserting after section 408 the following:

“Sec. 409. EMS and First Responder Wellness Grant Program

“(a) Establishment.—The Secretary, acting through the Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, shall establish a grant program, to be known as the ‘EMS and First Responder Wellness Grant Program’ (referred to in this section as the ‘Program’), to support first responder mental health, stress reduction, family services, and suicide prevention.

“(b) Placement.—The Program shall be carried out through the Office of Emergency Medical Services of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

“(c) Eligible Entities.—An entity eligible to receive a grant under the Program is—

“(1) a Federal, State, Tribal, or local fire service that supplies emergency medical services;

“(2) an emergency medical services agency; and

“(3) a dispatch center.

“(d) Authorized Uses.—A grant provided under the Program may be used for—

“(1) evidence-based stress reduction and mental health services;

“(2) suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention services;

“(3) confidential counseling, peer support, and behavioral health services;

“(4) family support services for spouses and children; and

“(5) outreach, stigma reduction, education, training, and technical assistance.

“(e) Authorization of Appropriations.—There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out the Program $7,500,000 for each of fiscal years 2028 through 2032.”.

(b) Clerical Amendment.—The analysis for chapter 4 of title 23, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 408 the following:

“409. EMS and First Responder Wellness Grant Program.”.

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