Psychological injuries forced paramedics and firefighters in Winnipeg off their jobs for thousands of hours last year, straining already understaffed essential services.

And the fallout is also leading to burnout in on-the-job members, their respective unions and a Canadian expert say.

Data from the City of Winnipeg shows 189 claims from Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service (WFPS) members were processed by the Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba (WCB) for psychological injuries at the workplace between January and October 2024.

Out of the total claims, 41 resulted in 17,626 hours of leave granted to firefighters and paramedics who were off the job due to injuries to their mental health — the highest number recorded since 2019.

Firefighters were off the job for 2,896 hours, while paramedics tallied 14,730 hours in psychological claims.

Ryan Woiden, president of MGEU Local 191 — the union representing Winnipeg paramedics — said that number amounts to more than 1,100 12-hour shifts left vacant.

“We’re talking about two to three shifts per day being lost,” he said. “Unless they’re being staffed with overtime, we shut those trucks down, and we have a decrease in the amount of ambulances available to respond to 911 calls.”

A leading factor for the sheer number of hours lost in claims, which more than doubled from last year within paramedics, is the nature of calls paramedics are being exposed to.

“We’re going to more unnatural human events … we’re seeing a breakdown of society firsthand, on somebody’s doorstep,” Wooden said, as paramedics respond to more calls involving domestic and intimate partner violence.

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Paramedics’ mental health is affected by calls involving criminal activity, Woiden said, where members can’t provide the same level of support as in medical emergencies.

“The lack of answers for those people is causing additional sadness … they just can’t keep carrying this burden,” he said.

Paramedics are also reversing more overdoses than before. The toxic drug supply has also led to more “volatile behaviour” from patients, the union president said, leading to more assaults on paramedics.

“You’re going out the door, and you’re doing CPR on somebody who you did twice on the day before,” Woiden said. “People stop looking like human beings.”

Understaffing leading to overtime, burnout

Tom Bilous, president of the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg, said inadequate staffing levels are also taking a toll on the mental health of first responders.

Bilous said the number of calls for service has increased exponentially in recent years, yet the city has fewer firefighters on shift now than it did in 1981, when the force responded to one-tenth of the calls they currently take.

To keep fire trucks running, more firefighters are working overtime, but it is coming at a cost to their mental health, as members skip the sleep, family time and self-care they need to fill shift vacancies.

Around104,000 hours of overtime were filed by WFPS members by October, the City said, bringing the service more than $7 million above its approved budget.

Tom Bilous, president of the union representing Winnipeg firefighters, said an inadequate staffing ratio is taking a toll on the mental health of first responders who are working more overtime to fill vacancies. (Prabhjot Singh Lotey/CBC)

“They’re getting burnt out  … they may be off for several months, the other members start taking overtime, they’re not recuperating, and this cycle goes on and on,” Bilous said.

“It’s very concerning, but it’s not surprising.”

Nick Carleton, a clinical psychology professor at the University of Regina specializing in research and treatment for first responders, agrees.

Public safety personnel across Canada have seen an increase in mental health challenges coming out of the pandemic, which added “a really big global stressor” on top of systems that were already “very taxed,” Carleton said.

Carleton said recruitment and retention issues, paired with extended demand for service, have increased stress levels among first responders, who are more often working in short-staffed departments as fewer stay for the long run.

“If we were in a rough state before the pandemic, then the data is saying things have gotten worse,” Carleton said.

Not the whole picture

But even as the number of hours lost to health claims continues to increase over the years, the firefighter union’s president said they are still conservative in reflecting the reality.

The Workers Compensation Board said claims for psychological injuries are evaluated individually, and the length of paid leave time is granted based on several factors, including medical condition, treatment status and the employer’s capability to provide accommodation.

But not all firefighters who are mentally struggling meet that threshold, Bilous said, and they resort to burning their own sick and holiday time while paying for mental health services out of pocket.

The president of the union representing Winnipeg paramedics, Ryan Woiden, said not all first responders who suffer a psychological injury in the workplace are granted time to recuperate, forcing many to use their sick time and holidays. (Trevor Brine/CBC)

Woiden said some paramedics are facing the same challenges, with some members even going on unpaid leave “out of desperation” to recover mentally.

A spokesperson for WCB said 35 claims for psychological injuries filed by firefighters and paramedics were disallowed between 2020 and 2023. Data on refused claims is not yet available for 2024.

Spike ‘concerning’ for city officials

The claim volume and hours lost are “concerning” for Coun. Vivian Santos (Point Douglas). Santos chairs council’s standing policy committee on community services, which includes oversight of the WFPS.

Santos said the city is seeing a “huge spike” in mental health injuries among city employees, including in services like Winnipeg Transit.

In response, the mayor’s executive policy committee put forward a motion, part of the city’s budget, Santos said, for the city’s human resources department to work with WCB to bring down the number of claims in coming years.

Santos said the city has beefed up a vacant buildings bylaw program to reduce the number of fires at boarded-up buildings — a major driver of calls for service.

Santos said the city has also partnered with the province to hire roughly 24 new firefighters to staff the new Waverley West station.

However, the paramedics union president argued that hundreds more members need to be recruited to compensate for the “alarming rate” at which first responders are resigning.

Reaching a crisis point

Carleton said onboarding new personnel is key to helping improve the mental health of the force, but stabilizing staffing will require changed recruitment efforts and structural supports.

“This is a very serious problem that needs to be addressed early, like right now, because it’s going to take years to solve,” he said.

“I don’t think it’s very far in the future where you start to reach crisis points because you do not have enough people to manage even the crisis management,” Carleton said.

Nick Carleton, a clinical psychology professor at the University of Regina specializing in research and treatment for first responders, says onboarding new personnel is key to helping improve the mental health of first responders, but stabilizing staffing levels will require changed recruitment efforts and structural support. (Prabhjot Singh Lotey/CBC)

The creation of a behavioural unit that pairs WFPS members with a psychologist or psychiatrist and other peer support programs is a positive change in mental health resources, the firefighters union president said.

Members are, however, not required to use the resource, and Bilous said that could make a difference, especially as many firefighters endure their struggles for years in silence.

“We are just scratching the surface,” Bilous said. “Sometimes, by the time you find out, it’s too late … that’s the part that scares me the most.”