Wednesday, November 11, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Former fire captain
faced ongoing trauma
By Ceili Cornelius
Correspondent
Former fire captain Justin
Waalkes knows just how
important the Central Oregon
Public Safety Chaplains
are to the well-being of
first responders. Executive
Chaplain Joel Stutzman
helped him out of a spiral
following critical stress inci-
dents throughout his career.
Waalkes went into the
fire service just out of
high school, going straight
into fire science at Central
Oregon Community College
in 1989. Waalkes had been
brought up around military
and fire-service members.
Waalkes began training
with Black Butte Ranch Fire
District and ended up train-
ing and working with the
advanced life-support team.
At the time, Black Butte
Ranch responded to critical
incidents as Sisters hadn9t
developed advanced life sup-
port yet. Waalkes responded
to fatal calls in his role as a
young firefighter.
<There was nothing in
place to deal with the after-
math of seeing that on the
fire-service end at the time.
We didn9t get taught how
to deal with what we were
seeing and often take ave-
nues that aren9t good,= said
Waalkes.
Wa a l k e s e v e n t u a l l y
moved up to head paramedic
with Black Butte Fire.
<I had five years of the
crappiest calls 4 fatal acci-
dents and the like 4 and as a
coping mechanism, I isolated
myself and fell into a trap of
drinking and putting on a
brave face and be solid for
the other guys and the pub-
lic,= he said.
Over time, not coping or
dealing with all that Waalkes
had seen, started to build up
and become a burden. The
more calls he got of a patient
dying, the more it took its
toll.
<I learned to not take
credit for the wins, and take
the losses personally,= he
said.
In 2010, Waalkes got into
treatment for drinking and
after six months of being
sober, everything he had
suppressed had come flood-
ing back, and he had no way
of knowing how to deal with
the flood of memories and
incident trauma that was
coming back.
<Therapy at the time
didn9t do much; the only
thing I had was the discipline
of my own will,= he said.
Waalkes knew he had
to do something to get out
of the spiral of not sleep-
ing, over-training, and not
performing well in his job.
Waalkes worked with Joel
Stutzman, the chaplain at
Sisters Fire District at the
time, and Stutzman assisted
in getting Waalkes the men-
tal health help he needed.
Waalkes took leave as a fire
captain and spent two weeks
in the mental ward of the
hospital. After two weeks of
intense treatment, he knew
he needed to establish some
help outside of the hospital
and in his home environ-
ment, so he continued to
meet with Stutzman, who
was a rock for Waalkes.
<Joel took time out of his
busy schedule to meet with
me every couple weeks over
coffee or breakfast 4 even
on weekends. He9s one hell
of a guy and an absolutely
amazing asset to the chap-
laincy and first responders
in Central Oregon,= said
Waalkes.
Stutzman put him in
touch with Bend psychia-
trist Dr. Larry Campbell, and
Dr. Campbell put Waalkes
into a program called Save
a Warrior (SAW), which
works with veterans and
first responders dealing with
PTSD and mental health
issues.
<They start you out with
an intensive day class and
within hours you are cry-
ing and talking and start-
ing to deal with stuff,= said
Waalkes.
This was the time Waalkes
truly felt like he was working
through all that he had seen
and experienced in order to
heal himself again.
After treatment with the
program, Waalkes expected
to be able to return to work,
but he realized he couldn9t
be in the fire profession
anymore as it brought back
too many traumatic memo-
ries. Waalkes now works
for Laredo Construction,
<where I can do a good day9s
work and can come home
and be home with my wife,=
he said.
Waalkes believes that
moving forward, there still
needs to be more of a focus
on the mental health of first
responders.
<They are the fix-all
people, they are the ones
people call when something
is wrong and it is a large bur-
den for anyone,= he said.
Through the help of the
chaplaincy program and
other programs, Waalkes
was able to get the help he
needed to work through
the traumatic things he wit-
nessed as a young firefighter
all the way up to his time as
a captain.
<It is important to know
it9s OK to open up and start
the process and I want to be
here for any firefighter that
needs to talk, anytime, any-
where,= he said.
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