Policy & Practice October 2018

compelled to assess and address the needs of their workforce in an effort to positively affect health and well-being. Once again, “no” meant “not yet.” Today, as you know, the term “stress” is an important word in our organizational vocabulary. Fire agencies in many states are at the forefront of providing cutting-edge psychological and organizational interventions for their personnel. Decades have now passed since my research. No matter where I have worked—in human resources, occupa- tional health, employees’ assistance, risk management, or as the admin- istrator of my own businesses—the wisdom that change arrives in time has been reinforced. It appears that there must be a critical mass of like- minded individuals coming together and seeing the need. Just as we can’t change people until they are ready, the same goes for organizations. Five years ago, my work as a senior consultant and educator for the University of California Davis’ Center for Human Services allowed me to travel to many health and human services (H/HS) organizations throughout California. I discovered the incredible specialness of the H/HS workforce. Witnessing H/HS com- mitment to community welfare was stunning. I was quickly doused with the complexities and difficult chal- lenges that many H/HS professionals faced daily. I was impressed that despite long work hours, diminished resources, changes in laws and regu- lations, and reduced staffing, H/HS professionals continued to impact and save lives daily. I was awestruck! My concerns about H/HS workforce health and well-being grew as my work expanded across the nation. My train- ings, facilitations, and programs have always been designed to create safe environments to facilitate authentic sharing. I wanted to more fully under- stand the “real” experience of working inside agencies. I realized that despite geographic location or customer demo- graphic, H/HS staff shared similar stories and health concerns about themselves and their colleagues. Many individuals at different levels of the organizational hierarchy reported symptoms from significant

My work as an organizational psy- chologist has afforded me the great privilege of entering hundreds of organizations and meeting thousands of employees. Working in private industry, higher education, and public service, I have navigated organiza- tional terrain that has both amazed and saddened me. Early on I witnessed and heard stories of pain and feelings of helplessness. It was disheartening because I was meeting people who were doing such meaningful work and, yet, higher stress levels seemed to diminish their sense of meaning. I was eager to use organizational tools I had learned to try to make my own mean- ingful impact. I quickly realized that some organizations were not ready for change. Today, we would call this a fixed mindset. Patience. As I stated above, I often interpret a “no” as an obstacle rather than a door closer. Although my professional career has had several iterations, I have been clear about my purpose and vision—to build individual and organizational health and well-being. Despite where I have worn my profes- sional hats, my mission and passion have not wavered. My first big “no” came during my doctoral studies. I wanted to research firefighter stress, trauma, and resil- ience for my dissertation. My first challenge was to convince my doctoral committee that assessing the needs of those who were in service to their community was actually worthy and important information. I was thrilled when two large California fire com- panies opened their doors to me. Organizational resistance replaced my welcome after a few months when risk managers discovered that firefighters were openly sharing their experiences and emotional pain. Out of fairness to fire agency leadership, those were the days when first responder agencies feared, rather than embraced, the word “stress.” There was an assumption that using words such as “stress” and “burnout” could lead to disability and worker’s compensation claims. Despite this huge setback, I was not deterred. In fact, I was determined to continue. For several months, I went door to door to local firehouses. I eventually met fire chiefs who felt

Igniting the Potential is a recurring theme for 2018. In each article, we introduce our readers to various efforts underway in the H/HS workforce. If your organization has a compelling story to share about how you are supporting and advancing the H/HS workforce, we would love to hear from you. Contact Jessica Garon at jgaron@aphsa.org. Igniting the Potential

Beth A. Cohen is the Administrator of Organizational Mind Group, LLC.

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Policy&Practice October 2018