Best Answer
It is difficult to address the issue of lack of mental health funding for first responders without first acknowledging the general lack of appropriate thoughts about mental health. While physical illness is treated as a legitimate illness and self-care to help avoid that illness is supported, mental illness is oftentimes still treated like a character defect. People who seek assistance for mental health not only have to face a lack of funding, but often have to worry about whether the stigma that attaches to seeking such help will work against them in their future professional lives. For example, will it have the potential to impact the ability to get licenses or other professional certifications? Making that issue more complicated is whether it should impact those abilities. First responders are put in life-and-death scenarios. Is it safe or appropriate to have a police officer who is experiencing depression carrying a gun or an EMT in the same situation with access to medications that could be used to take their own life? These are all issues that surround access to mental health resources for first responders, though resolving all of those issues successfully is going to require greater funding, not less funding.
Some issues to consider while writing your essay would be: how to tailor mental health to first responders; how to allocate federal, state, and local funds; looking at barriers to mental health care; how to provide an appropriate spectrum of mental health funding; how to coordinate mental health…
