NVFC Roundtable Talk - Holiday Blues: Supporting Behavioral Health and Resilience in the Fire and Emergency Services

In 2010, Jeff Dill founded Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance (FBHA). 

Jeff travels the United States & Canada holding workshops to educate firefighters, dispatchers & EMS about behavioral health awareness, moral injury and suicide prevention.  In 2010, FBHA began tracking and validating data on all FF, EMS and dispatcher suicides across the United States. In addition, FBHA offers ten workshops for first responders, counselors/chaplains, family members and preparing for retirement.

Jeff Dill holds a Master’s Degree in Counseling, is a retired Fire Captain at Palatine Rural Fire Protection District in Inverness, Illinois.  

Jeff speaks internationally about his work for his brothers and sisters.  The past ten years he has travelled over 1,000,000 air miles. His message offers hope and inspires all to enjoy life by understanding their own behavioral health.

On July 1^st, 2021 Jeff was appointed the new Behavioral Health Administrator for Las Vegas Fire & Rescue.

Sarah Gura is a master’s level licensed clinical professional counselor in Illinois and a licensed mental health counselor in Florida.  Her practice is The Self-Care Path, LLC and she specializes in treating first responders.  She is EMDR-trained by EMDRIA, providing trauma-informed therapy, and teaches mental health topics within the context of first responder experiences.  www.selfcarepath.com 

Cobey Taylor is a career firefighter out of Grand Traverse County. He is the founding president of the Northwest Michigan Peer Network where he helps spread the awareness of the stigma with mental health within the first responder community.

Currently, Cobey is working with Frontline Strong Together and Wayne State to promote mental health awareness throughout the state of Michigan.

Cobey dedicates his career to public education, public relations, and behavioral health.

Cobey’s main goal is to help fight against the stigma of first responder mental health, and to reduce the number of first responder suicides.

Some of Cobey’s achievements include the following:

• IAFF Peer Support
• CISM – GRIN (Group and Individual)
• CISM – Advanced Group
• CISM – Advanced Individual
• Leadership and Resiliency
• YFIRE Program Manager and Specialist
• Stop the Bleed Instructor
• BLS Instructor
• Car Seat Tech Cobey started his fire career in 2003 as a paid on-call firefighter and became full-time in 2018. He is a father of 3 daughters and married to a loving wife that supports his mission of leaving the fire service better than when he joined.