Rosecrance hosting national fire service event
Broadening the conversation about behavioral health in the fire service is the goal of a new three-day event taking place in September.
The 2016 Rosecrance Florian Symposium will bring together clinical experts and men and women of all ranks from fire departments across the country to discuss important topics such as substance use and mental health treatment, trauma, peer support and the chaplaincy.
Rosecrance for many years has worked alongside firefighters and paramedics but stepped up in 2014 to start the Florian Program, which is geared specifically to that population. Florian has its own eight-bed residential substance abuse treatment unit in Rockford, Illinois, for firefighters and paramedics struggling with job-related addiction and mental health issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety.
Florian is led by Dan DeGryse, a current battalion chief with and 27-year veteran of the Chicago Fire Department. To date, the program hashelped more than 100 active and retired fire service members from all ranks representingmore than 80 departments in 10 states.Unique components of treatment include regular peer support and education about vicarious trauma.
Organizing the symposium to reach an even larger audience about these issues was the next natural step for Rosecrance. The event is scheduled for Sept. 28-30 at the Loews Chicago O’Hare Hotel in Rosemont.
The first day features pre-conference training sessions in Mental Health First Aid, taught by Rosecrance’s Sarra Reichwald, and Illinois Fire Fighter Peer Support with Jada Hudson and Matt Olson. Those trainings are currently full, but there is a wait list.
The next two days are full of sessions featuring experts in the field from across the country: Frank Leto and Andrew Kane with FDNY; Bobby Halton with Fire Engineering magazine; Ryan “Birdman” Parrot and John Walters with Sons of the Flag; Suzy Gulliver with the Warriors Research Institute; and fire service leaders from Illinois, Wisconsin, New Jersey and Florida. Rosecrance staff including DeGryse, Dr. Raymond Garcia and the Rev. Jim Swarthout, as well as Florian Program alumni are also slated to speak. Nationally recognized comedian Mark Lundholm will perform, as well.
The symposium is open to anyone with an interest in furthering the conversation about behavioral health in the fire service, including new and longtime firefighters and paramedics, fire service administration, chaplains, clinicians, family members and government officials/fire department trustees and board members.
“We want people to feel like it’s OK to talk about these issues and know that there are people who care and places they can go for help,” DeGryse said. “I want people to walk out of this event and go back to their communities to have these discussions in an open forum so we can continue to leave the fire house better than we found it.”
Visit rosecranceflorian.org to register and to see the full list of speakers and symposium brochure. You can also check out the Rosecrance Florian Facebook page for videos from the presenters. Call Dan DeGryse at 815-387-2461 or email him at for more information.