As of: April 3, 2024, 7:00 p.m
By: Andrea Hermann
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“We are there for the firefighters,” says PSNV team leader Franz Rauch (2nd from right), also on behalf of (from left) Wendelin Hege, Michaela Schröder and Sophie Pfleger. © Hermann
When operations become a burden for firefighters, quick help is required. There is a service for this in the Freising district - the helpers of the helpers.
District -
These are missions that also push rescue workers to their limits: serious accidents or fires with injuries or even deaths, emergencies where relatives are affected, or tragic missions with children. So that firefighters can deal with such extraordinary stresses in action, the Freising district has psychosocial emergency care (PSNV) and fire department pastoral care - a group that, according to district fire officer Manfred Danner, is “active in the background” and immensely important.
Franz Rauch has been with the fire department for 49 years and has “had enough stressful missions,” as he tells the FT interview. And so he was at the start when the PSNV group was set up in the Freising district. In 2000 he completed appropriate training and is now a specialist district fire chief in psychosocial emergency care.
I think it's really important that people are supported.
Michaela Schröder, active member of the Hohenkammer fire department and PSNV contact person
It is important to him and his colleagues to help their fellow firefighters cope psychologically with emergencies - in the form of individual and group discussions. In addition to team leader Franz Rauch, the PSNV team in the district also includes Michaela Schröder, Wendelin Hege, Sophie Pfleger and Daniela Jasch, as well as the Mauer pastor Richard Greul as a psychosocial specialist.
“I think it’s really important that people are supported,” says Michaela Schröder, an active member of the Hohenkammer fire department and PSNV contact person since 2016. Because she knows from her own experience that it is not always easy to process assignments alone. Then it is important to talk to someone about it – alone or in a group. “Simply being there”, listening and signaling to the person affected that they are not alone with their problem, “that is important – and that also helps,” she says.
There's nothing to be ashamed of.
Co-founder of the PSNV
Franz Rauch knows that “we talk about our experiences as we drive home after missions, but sometimes that’s not enough.” That's why it's important that there are contact people - and that they are also contacted by the emergency services. “You don’t have to be ashamed,” says Franz Rauch. On the contrary: “If the firefighters are already burdened, then they should be helped,” says the 63-year-old.
Sophie Pfleger from the Freising fire department (fire station 2 in Lerchenfeld) also feels called to join the PSNV group. When she had to look after the brother of an injured man for an hour and a half during a mission, she realized that that was exactly what she wanted to do: “talking to people and working.” And that's why the 26-year-old primary school teacher wants to do the training she needs soon.
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The inhibition threshold is lower when you are there.
Wendelin Hege, also in the PSNV team
Wendelin Hege has been part of the PSNV team for two years. “Pre-loaded” by his psychology studies and his involvement in youth work, he is also there to help his colleagues. It is always an advantage if you are “available” to your colleagues. “The inhibition threshold is lower when you are there.”
If you ask the volunteers about their motivation, they don't have to think twice: “My people are important to me,” says Michaela Schröder. “I want them to do well and go on missions again.” After all, being a firefighter is a “dream hobby.” And in most cases her colleagues thank her for her efforts: “The nicest thing is when they say that it was good and that it achieved something.”
How important psychosocial emergency care has become over time is also shown by the fact that two hours are dedicated to the topic in modular squad training, i.e. the basic training of firefighters. “Prevention is important,” says Wendelin Hege, “so that the problem doesn’t become an illness.” And so all contacts in the psychosocial emergency care hope that their colleagues will come to them in an acute case. Franz Rauch promises: “We are there for the firefighters.”
A fire broke out in an apartment building in Moosburger Neustadt shortly before noon on Wednesday. An apartment on the upper floor was destroyed.