Fixing PSAP Vacancy Rates Will Be Neither Cheap Nor Easy

A couple of days ago, a piece on ABC’s Good Morning America show featured new technology that allows 911 Dispatchers to see and hear what is happening at the caller’s scene. Also mentioned prominently was the Spring 2023 report from the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch, “America’s 911 Workforce is in Crisis,” that noted an average 25% vacancy rate in PSAP’s. The new technology is wonderful. So is the fact that the PSAP vacancy rate is getting more public coverage. Because it is the public, after all, who both use and fund 911 services.

Departure of many 911 Dispatchers from the system, while a situationally attractive option for the individual who is leaving, is often not examined for reasons for leaving. Consequently, departments may not have clarity as to the systemic reasons why 911 Dispatchers depart. Absent such focus, communities, departments and political leaders may assume they know what has been causing 911 Dispatcher vacancies. Sometimes, even 911 Dispatchers themselves, by virtue of the pressing and immediate nature of their work, are not aware of all the negative forces acting on them. When dispatching for the FDNY in Brooklyn I certainly wasn’t. I was too busy to think about it.

While there can be a lot of case-level variation among departing 911 Dispatchers as to why they have left their jobs (I couldn’t get child-friendly hours, e.g.), on a population level we know that physiological and economic stressors are real. Despite varying individual levels of immunity to specific stressors, we know that these chronic stressors affect 911 Dispatchers collectively.

If community leaders believe the sole cause of 911 Dispatcher stress is vicarious trauma secondary to difficult calls, that’s where they will concentrate their remediation efforts. That much is welcome and necessary. But it’s not sufficient. It is up to 911 Dispatchers and their professional associations to paint a more comprehensive picture of the adverse effects of the job that need to be mitigated. Some professional dispatcher associations are doing a terrific job in shedding light on the larger stress picture for 911 Dispatchers. The NENA Standard to Protect the Wellbeing of 9-1-1 Professionals NENA-STA-002.2-2022 (nena-sta-002.2-2022_wellbein.pdf ) is a great example of this. This NENA standard is comprehensive and has useful sections and links on concerns like obesity, sleep, resilience training, and Critical Incident Stress. However, there are over 6,000 primary PSAP’s in the United States and it’s a good bet that many of them don’t have the budget to send people to national or even state meetings to learn more about these harmful influences on their professional lives. Beyond that, for a lot of these PSAP’s, even if they are aware of the various stressors, they don’t have the budget for the fixes that are necessary to meet each PSAP-related work stressor as it is identified.

If community leaders want 911 Dispatchers to be optimally prepared to handle difficult calls and challenging incidents, they must take budgetary steps to support 911 Dispatchers in dealing with all of their job-related stressors, acute and chronic. A lot of effort has been put into detecting signs of stress in 911 Dispatchers. This is needed and it is a big plus for the profession. It is also necessary to put at least as much effort into detecting and mitigating causes of stress in 911 Dispatchers. Mental Health resources are important responses when stressors become known.

There are many chronic stressors, some obvious and some less so, that affect 911 Dispatchers. Most important is salary structure, not only because more money is generally considered by employees to be a positive thing. But also because a lot of other stressors (a second job, working overtime shifts, social isolation and Habitual Short Sleep Duration…see my post of seven months ago: https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/francisxholt_have-you-ever-been-ordered-to-work-an-overtime-activity-7183917656540884992-zvdd?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop ) are nested in the “inadequate salary” bucket.

Other chronic? stress fixes, in no particular order, are: Scheduling driven by human biological science regarding circadian rhythm, dietician consulting and dietary education, PSAP environmental assessment and adjustment of light and sound levels so as to be harmonious with human health needs, adequate staffing to avoid ordered overtime work, a clear statement of value for the 911 Dispatcher, routine training for all shifts, sending 911 Dispatchers to Professional Conferences, encouraging and seeking funds for PSAP-level research, routine in-person talk sessions with upper-level management and field forces, educating 911 Dispatchers in the mechanics of attitude and expectation formation and change, and encouraging annual physicals for all 911 Dispatchers.

If this sounds like a lot, it’s because it is a lot. Start somewhere. Go to meetings and advocate for budgeting to support the changes you need. Eventually you won’t have to budget for the repeated cycles of recruiting, vetting and hiring what turn out to be short-term employees.

If we, as a society, don’t value 911 Dispatchers in tangible ways, we are going to have big problems. Problems that AI can’t solve. Problems that regionalization can’t solve. Problems that dedication can’t solve. We always want 911 Dispatchers to be empathetic with callers. We have to be institutionally empathetic with 911 Dispatchers. How we show that empathy will have different manifestations in different places. But it is not something that any Public Safety leader can put on the back burner.

-????????? Parts of this article are excerpted from my book 911 Dispatchers Are More Than You Might Imagine?, being released next year.