Director in Distress: Destigmatizing Mental Health for Leaders

Tuesday, August 6 | 1:30 - 2:30 p.m.
Dr. Renee Thornton

In this session, Dr. Renee Thornton presented a class all leaders should take note of. This session was directed to emergency communication center leadership and should be taken to heart.

Starting off with a simple exercise to help reset mentally, the session focused on a leader's health. Self care is a key factor in everyone's life. Dr. Thornton expressed concern that leadership has been taught to take care of their staff without being taught how to take care of themselves.

She also advised that leadership needs to advocate for themselves and their mental health. The support group for the ECC Director is others in the same occupation. Some of the best resources for this are found in conferences such as APCO 2024. She advised that we owe it to ourselves and we owe it to each other to take care of ourselves.

Dr. Thornton also used the statistic 7 to 8 out of 10 employees in public safety state that if their boss talked about their mental health challenges so would they. How can leaders be strong for others if they are not strong for themselves. Taking time to show up for themselves is the key to being able to show up for others.

Sherry Glick