Firefighters answer the call for help daily.

Starting today, there’s an app to help them when they’re in distress.


What You Need To Know

  • New portal connects firefighters with mental health help

  • First responder who needed support himself came up with concept

  • Finding solution for others part of healing process for Dustin Hawkins

  • UCF, firefighters group partner with Hawkins on development

Redline Rescue is a peer-to-peer support portal that connects firefighters who need mental health help with others. They can log on, answer a few screening questions via drop-down lists, and within minutes, locate peers to talk.

“It was surprising how many of our family members here were suffering from what they see, from what they experienced," said Lt. Dustin Hawkins, who works for Indian River Fire Rescue.

Hawkins suffered in silence for more than a year after an explosive accident aboard a marine unit when he was in his mid-30s left him burned and scarred.

After his accident, the lieutenant, who also serves as a chaplain for both the department and union, "got back on the truck as quickly as possible." He was still healing, with skin grafts sticking to his uniform.

“It was about a year to the point where I attempted to kill myself," Hawkins recalled. “The nightmares weren’t getting any better. There wasn’t enough alcohol in the world to shut it down.

“My brother, who works in the fire service in a neighboring county, found me the day I attempted to kill myself. Serendipitous faith, love, grace. He found me."

Focusing on solution helped Hawkins heal

So on a napkin, Hawkins scribbled an idea to lessen the suffering of first responders like himself by providing access to caring clinicians and to round-the-clock peer support.

In 2015, he stood before a "stoic room" of Florida fire chiefs at a health and safety conference and shared the concept of better resources for first responders facing mental health struggles.

“You have been swimming in other people’s worst days for your entire life, hoping to make a difference. And it’s all compounded, compiled," he said.

To the room, Hawkins admitted his own process — from being an outgoing firefighter on every special-operations team, to a person struggling every night with ideations of suicide.

" 'I cannot be alone with this,' " he recalled saying. " 'How many of you struggle with depression, with addiction?' The room started standing up and raising their hand.”

Hawkins said that from then on, he knew that mental health should be a core component of firefighter minimum standards and training.

UCF, Florida Firefighters Safety and Health Collaborative help make portal a reality

Years later, he found himself partnering with the Florida Firefighters Safety and Health Collaborative and the University of Central Florida to launch the portal that would put access to help directly in first responders' hands.

“We are helping find culturally competent clinicians who do treatments that work," UCF's Dr. Deborah Beidel said. “We need people who understand it’s going to be layers of trauma for a lot of people.”

Beidel runs UCF Restores, which has long treated PTSD-sufferers, from active-duty military to first responders, using virtual technology.

Now the clinic is recruiting and training clinicians around the state to be part of Redline Rescue.

“When peer support is not enough, people will be able to come to Restores or find someone in their area," Beidel said.

Sometimes firefighters need support from outside their circle, Hawkins said.

“It’s a constant switch back and forth. We never historically talked about feelings," Hawkins said. “It was unheard of to talk about feelings. There was a lot of 'f words' in the firehouse; feelings was not one of them. That’s changing.”

In the near future, Hawkins said the app will expand to include Blueline Rescue to cover more first responders, like law enforcement.

“I hope that it gives to these first responders the same opportunity that everyone that picks up the phone and dials 911 expects, demands and deserves," he said. “It’s ready when they are. They don’t have to wait for that appointment.”