As suicide rates continue, Florida is expanding its Mental Health First Aid Line to all 67 counties

TAMPA, FL – Florida expands access to mental health services amid rising suicide rates among first responders.

The Hillsborough County In the last seven years, five employees have committed suicide at the sheriff’s office.

On Monday, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody announced an expansion of an initiative that began in Tampa Bay.

As for real-world experiences, they’re ones Sheriff Chronister wishes his agency didn’t have.

READ MORE: Telephone operators at Tampa Bay’s HOPE hotline crisis center.

“He was getting the help he needed,” Chronister said of Deputy Tim White, who committed suicide in August. “It just couldn’t get him to the point where he felt like he could overcome any fight he faced.”

White was found in his car after a shift at the Hillsborough County Courthouse in late August.

He was one of twelve Florida first responders to commit suicide this year and the fifth HCSO employee to take his own life since 2019.

“In the first few months of my tenure as sheriff, I lost two deputies to murder-suicide who killed family members and committed suicide,” Chronister said. “I knew we hadn’t done enough already.”

Telephone operators on the Tampa Bays Crisis Center’s HOPE hotline.

In 2020, the Tampa Bay Crisis Center partnered with the Florida Attorney General to launch 866-4-FL-HERO.

First responders and their families can call to speak to another first responder who can help them.

It was announced Monday that it is now available to first responders in every Florida county.

“This is not someone who says, ‘I’m trying to imagine what you’re going through,'” Chronister said. “No, you’re talking to a veteran. This is the person who provided first aid.”

In thirty years of work in law enforcement Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw has seen countless of his colleagues struggle with mental health.

One hit closest to home.

“My brother was a deputy in Collier County and he took his own life,” Bercaw said.

In 2010, Dep. Craig Marshall took his own life at the age of 34. Bercaw believes that if there were less stigma and help lines, he might still be here.

“We are the first to respond and the last to ask for help,” Bercaw said. “It’s usually because we don’t know who to ask for help.”

Since 2019, eighty-one first responders in Florida have taken their own lives.

Over the past four months, of the 340 calls, 42 percent came from law enforcement, 30 percent from paramedics and paramedics, and 18 percent from firefighters.

The chief says it’s important that 100 percent of callers are willing to ask for help.

“It’s leveraging those resources and not being afraid to ask,” Bercaw said.

For information about Florida Hope, click Here.

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