Creating & Maintaining Peer Support

April 11-12, 2022 | Waco Convention Center, Waco, TX
8:30 am - 4:30 pm 

Please join us for an exciting and interactive two-day workshop focusing on peer support and creating a successful peer support team in your organization. This unique and dynamic program is used by the North Carolina Statewide Peer Support Team, and features numerous opportunities to roleplay with your peers and instructors alike. This workshop introduces firefighter psychological first aid, provided to firefighters by firefighters, and provides a first round of psycho education on responding to firefighter behavioral health needs. It also supports the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s Everyone Goes Home 13th Life Safety Initiative: Firefighters and their families must have access to counseling and psychological support services.

Instructors

Captain Dena Ali

Dena Ali is a with the Raleigh (NC) Fire Department where she has worked her way up the ranks. She previously served as a police officer for five years. Ali has a degree from North Carolina State University and an MPA from the University of North Carolina—Pembroke, where her research focused on firefighter suicide. As a graduate student, she was awarded the 2018 MPA student of the year.

Dena has also served as a subject matter expert at the National Fire Academy where she assisted in curriculum review for their health and wellness curriculum. Dena is an advocate of awareness, education, and understanding of mental health disorders and suicidality. She has written several articles on topics such as suicide prevention, peer support, wellness, and posttraumatic stress. Dena is the founder and director of North Carolina Peer Support where she helped to develop their statewide curriculum.

Captain Jason “Bear” Wilson

Jason “Bear” Wilson is a Captain at the Houston Fire Department assigned to a Hazardous Materials Response Team and a reserve Deputy at the Harris County Constable’s Office Precinct 1. Wilson is a 26+ year Public Safety/Incident Management professional with 26 years of Fire/EMS and 8 years of Law Enforcement experience.

Wilson is certified by the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF) as a Group Crisis Intervention Instructor, and has trained approximately 100 first responders in the two-day course. He holds an ICISF Certificate of Specialized Training in the field of Emergency Services. Currently, he is the Coordinator for the Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Team at the Houston Fire Department.

Thank you to our Sponsors!