If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available.

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline

Find Treatment

findtreatment.gov

 

Safe Call Now

Building Health and Resilience in 9‑1‑1

Public safety telecommunicators are devoted to assisting others every day, so it is essential that they take good care of themselves in order to better handle the challenges of their work and mitigate the impact of this constant exposure to trauma. In addition, studies show there may be negative health effects from shift work, stress, lack of exercise or poor eating habits.

The resources in this section may help individuals recognize signs of possible trouble and be proactive about building positive habits and striving for good mental and physical health.

Health & Wellness at APCO 2026

Planning on attending APCO 2026? Check out all that APCO has to offer at this year’s annual conference & expo.

Wellness in the Emergency Communications Center Track
Wellness Zone in the Exhibit Hall
Sunday, August 2

  • Therapy is NOT a Dirty Word!
  • No Village, No Problem
  • Mastering your Money: A Path to Financial Wellness
  • Connected to Thrive: Relationships Fuel Resilience

Monday, August 3

  • Good Mourning
  • 9 TO THRIVE: Wellness Skills for Dispatchers, Dolly style!

Tuesday, August 4

  • Beyond CISM: Building Resilient Dispatchers
  • Are You Ready For The Call?

Wednesday, August 5

  • Wilderness Wellness for 911 Dispatchers
  • Mixtape Wellness: Integrating Music Into Self-care
  • Behind the Headset: Navigating Life with a 911 Dispatcher
  • The 3 E’s in ME
Take a much-needed break to improve your overall wellness and join us for one of the following activities.

Monday, August 3 & Tuesday, August 4

  • Paws & Play
  • Table Tennis & Cornhole
  • Creative Corner
  • Blood Drive

PSC Magazine Articles

PSC, APCO’s bi-monthly magazine, in either print or digital form, is a benefit of APCO membership. We have linked to a few of these below. To read all of the related stories from past issues, members can log in to view the PSC back issues. If you are not a member, you can access the stories by joining APCO International.

Recent issues and articles include:

March/April 2026

  • Stressed Out Strategies: Every Telecommunicator Needs A Personal Stress Plan
  • Bridging the Gap

November/December 2025

  • Finding a Voice
  • Action After a Major Incident

July/August 2025 

  • Holistic Health
  • Debriefing For 9-1-1

May/June 2025 

  • Mission-Alignment and Workload Balance Are Essential to Wellness in the ECC
  • Healthy Challenges in the ECC
  • Money-Making Wellness
  • Break Point
  • Emotional Rescue

March/April 2025

  • Beyond Blame
  • The Balanced Telecommunicator

September/October 2024

  • Sleepless

July/August 2024

May/June 2024

March/April 2024

November/December 2023

  • Building Toward Burnout

May/June 2023

  • Proactive Telecommunicator Wellness
  • Strategies for Stress
  • Wellness Tech for the Telecommunicator
  • How Can We Cope? Dealing With the Stress That Follows a Critical Incident
  • Physical Fitness

January/February 2023

  • Raising Awareness of the Impacts of Working in Emergency Communications
  • Technology Tools for Telecommunicator Health

March/April 2022

  • Occupational Identity and Well-Being: Ideas From Telecommunicators
  • Everyday Peer Support: Chronic Stress in the ECC
  • How to Alleviate Stress in 10 Days
  • The Great Eight

 

APCO Courses

Surviving Stress

Stress is one of the most common words used in society today and something that each one of us will experience at some point in our life. Stress affects people of all ages, professions and life situations. However, emergency communications as a profession is inherently stressful with the various demands placed upon them by nature of the profession. Understanding these causes of stress in the profession will allow the public safety telecommunicator to recognize and mitigate some of the stressful situations that they may encounter. This course addresses how to detect stress within yourself and co-workers and provides measures to reduce its impact.

Chapter Newsletters and Materials

Florida APCO Wellness Committee

Florida APCO’s Wellness Committee provides documents and a newsletter tailored to the unique challenges of the public safety telecommunicators, promoting stress management, mental health support, and physical well-being.