Psychological injuries forced paramedics and firefighters in Winnipeg to walk off the job for thousands of hours last year, straining already understaffed essential services.
And the result is also leading to burnout among members on the job, say their respective unions and Canadian experts.
City of Winnipeg data shows 189 claims from Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service (WFPS) members were processed by Manitoba's Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) for workplace psychological injuries between January and October 2024.
Of the total claims, 41 resulted in 17,626 hours of leave being granted to firefighters and paramedics who were off work due to injuries to their mental health – the highest number recorded since 2019.
Firefighters were off the job for 2,896 hours, while paramedics accounted for 14,730 hours in psychological claims.
Ryan Wyden, president of MGEU Local 191 — the union representing Winnipeg paramedics — said the number is more than 1,100 12-hour shifts left vacant.
“We are talking about losing two to three shifts a day,” he said. “Unless they're staffed with overtime, we shut down those trucks, and we're short on the amount of ambulances available to respond to 911 calls.”
A major factor in the sheer number of hours lost in claims, which more than doubled within paramedics last year, is the exposed nature of on-call paramedics.
“We're going to have more unnatural human events … we're seeing the breakdown of society, on somebody's doorstep,” Wooden said, as paramedics responded to more calls involving domestic and intimate partner violence.
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Paramedics' mental health is affected by calls involving criminal activity, Wyden said, where members can't provide the same level of support as in a medical emergency.
“The lack of answers for those people is causing more suffering … they cannot bear this burden,” he said.
Paramedics are also reversing more overdoses than ever before. The toxic drug supply has led to more “unsettled behaviour” from patients, the union president said, leading to more attacks on paramedics.
“You're walking out the door, and you're doing CPR on somebody that you did twice the day before,” Woden said. “People stop looking like people.”
Understaffing leads to overtime, burnout
Tom Bilous, president of the United Firefighters of Winnipeg, said inadequate staffing levels are also affecting the mental health of first responders.
Bilous said the number of calls for service has increased rapidly in recent years, but the city has fewer firefighters now than it did in 1981, when the force responded to one-tenth the number of calls they take now.
To keep fire trucks running, more firefighters are working overtime, but it's coming at a cost to their mental health, as members sacrifice sleep, family time and self-care they need to fill shift vacancies.
around 104,000 hours of overtime were filed by WFPS members As of October, the city said the service had brought in $7 million more than its approved budget.
“They're burning out … they can be off for several months, other members start taking overtime, they can't recover, and the cycle continues,” Bilous said.
“It's very worrying, but it's not surprising.”
University of Regina clinical psychology professor Nick Carlton, an expert in research and treatment for first responders, agrees.
Public safety workers across Canada have seen an increase in mental health challenges coming out of the pandemic, adding “a really big global strain” on top of already “overtaxed” systems, Carlton said.
Carlton said recruitment and retention issues, coupled with expanded demand for service, have increased stress levels among first responders, who are often working in short-staffed departments because of long layoffs.
“If we were in a bad situation before the pandemic, the data says things have gotten worse,” Carlton said.
Not the whole picture
But even though the number of hours lost in health claims has increased over the years, the president of the firefighters union said they are still too conservative to reflect reality.
Claims for psychological injuries are evaluated individually by the Workers' Compensation Board, and the length of paid leave is awarded based on a number of factors, including medical conditions, treatment status and the employer's ability to provide accommodations.
But not all mentally struggling firefighters meet that threshold, Bilus said, and resort to burning their own sick and vacation time while paying for mental health services out of pocket.
Wyden said some paramedics are facing similar challenges, with some members even going on unpaid leave “out of desperation” to recover mentally.
A WCB spokesperson said 35 claims for psychological injuries filed by firefighters and paramedics were denied between 2020 and 2023. Data on denied claims is not yet available for 2024.
Spike 'concerning' for city officials
The claim volume and lost hours are “concerning” for Coun. Vivian Santos (Point Douglas). Santos chairs the Council's Standing Policy Committee on Community Services, which includes oversight of WFPS.
Santos said the city is seeing a “huge spike” in mental health injuries among city employees, including with services like Winnipeg Transit.
In response, the mayor's executive policy committee put forward a proposal, part of the city's budget, Santos said, for the city's human resources department to work with the WCB to reduce the number of claims in the coming years.
Santos said the city has strengthened the vacant buildings bylaw program to reduce the number of fires in boarded-up buildings — a major driver of calls for service.
Santos said the city has partnered with the province to hire about 24 new firefighters to staff the new Waverley West station.
However, the president of the paramedics union argued that hundreds of new members needed to be recruited to compensate for the “appalling rate” at which first responders are resigning.
It reaches a crisis point
Carlton said onboarding new employees is critical to helping improve the mental health of the force, but recruiting efforts and structural supports are needed to stabilize employees.
“This is a very serious problem that needs to be addressed soon, like now, because it will take years to resolve,” he said.
“I don't think it's that far into the future where you start getting to crisis points because you don't have enough people to even manage crisis management,” Carlton said.
The creation of a behavioral unit that connects WFPS members with psychologists or psychiatrists and other peer support programs is a positive change in mental health resources, the president of the firefighters union said.
Members, however, are not required to use the resource, and Bilus said it can make a difference, especially since many firefighters endure their struggles for years in silence.
“We're just scratching the surface,” Bilous said. “Sometimes, by the time you find out, it's too late … that's the part that scares me the most.”
