GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — While firefighting is one of James Peyton's passions, another is helping his brothers and sisters in the first responder community.
"When you call in, it's your call, you run the call, we don't force you to do anything," said Peyton.
He's part of Common Ground and Frontline Strong Together, a mental health resource for first responders across the State of Michigan, with operators standing by 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Those taking calls to help police, firefighters and EMS workers process traumatic events or other problems are also first responders.
"We don't want you to call when the house is burning down," said Peyton. "I want you to call when the house when you start to see smoke, when you start to have that when you're starting to have these feelings, don't wait until it's become something that's that you can't deal with anymore."
Peyton said there used to be a stigma associated with the job, but adds that there has been a change.
"There was a long time was this was what they call a suck it up community," said Peyton. "You suck it up and you move on. First responders are often trained to be like robots. Coming out and talking about the problems that you're having, that's where the strength is. That's the strong part."
What could prompt a call? Peyton explained that the reason could be anything.
"It's just day after day experiencing traumatic moments and seeing traumatic things on scenes and having to deal with these and no way to process it before this," said Peyton.
With Frontline Strong Together becoming a more well known resource, the calls keep coming in.
"They are up to 80 some a month that we're getting, like 86 roughly a month, and I just want to see those numbers grow," said Peyton. "And that's my thing is like this is this was created for them. This is something run for them, created by first responders use it, you just use it, make the call."
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