Salt Lake City 911 operators hear ‘the very worst’ each day. A new co-worker is helping them cope.

The Salt Lake City 911 Dispatch Center is lit up like a Christmas tree.

Each operator faces several computer screens while navigating callers through crises. They take about 50 to 60 calls a day, or about 10,000 to 15,000 a year.

It’s trauma-minded tunnel vision until a round, flash of green suddenly bounces by their desks, followed by a much fluffier flash of blond.

That flash of blond is Flora, the dispatch center’s 1-year old golden heeler, darting after a small tennis ball. Flora serves as the center’s calm in the storm as she trains to become their full-time therapy dog.

“You’re gonna get very traumatic things that you’re hearing one on top of the other,” said Shelly Dejong, an operations manager at SLC911. “That’s what makes her so fantastic, is we might not have that chance to step out and get ourselves back together, but just having her right there next to you … That can be ‘Okay, I can take the next call.’”

A critical time

Flora joined the dispatch center during a tumultuous year at SLC911. She was a few months old when the department gained a new director, Stephen Meyer, amid a historic rise in calls for service, while also down 22 operators — over a quarter of its employees.

When Meyer arrived in November, he immediately began working toward getting the center fully staffed, meeting with Mayor Erin Mendenhall to ensure dispatchers were properly paid to retain who they still had.

“We had a problem with people walking out the door, left and right, because they were underpaid — and it’s a hard job,” Meyer said. “I can’t ask them to take care of perfect strangers when we’re not taking care of them.”

In January, SLC911 implemented a $5-$6 pay raise, and the center is now down to nine openings. Most dispatchers are now paid $32 per hour, and none have left since the increase.

Even with additional pay and increased staffing, the job takes a toll. Operators are the first of the first responders, often taking calls from people at their worst moments.

But they don’t get to see when someone is revived, a baby is born or a missing child is found. Instead, they take the next call.

“When I was in training, I was still fairly new — I had a woman who had committed suicide, and then called 911, because she had regretted it, and she stopped breathing on phone,” Alex Dale, a dispatcher at SLC911 said. “She essentially passed away while she was on the phone with me.”

“That was really hard; I have an EMS background, so to go from not being able to do anything hands-on to having to listen — it was just very difficult,” Dale continued.

Before he could take a break to decompress, another call came in. “And I was like, trying to still process the last call I had just taken,” Dale said.

Times like these are where Flora comes in.

“She has a really good sense of when somebody might be taking a bad call, or somebody might be having a bad day — she’ll kind of gravitate towards those people, and kind of nudge her way in,” said Kelli Wallin, another operations manager at SLC911.

The ‘first’ first responders

Because of the repeated stress operators face, 911 dispatchers have one of the highest suicide rates of any emergency responder, Meyer said

Richie Landward studies trauma and post-traumatic stress in first responders as a professor at the University of Utah. He said one of the primary characteristics of post-traumatic stress is feeling out of control in a situation, which can particularly affect 911 operators.

“The level of trauma they’re hearing is really intense, without the ability to then help create a safe situation — to help the person work through the trauma, to get them to the hospital, to do what’s needed to help save their life,” Landward said.

Because of this disconnect, dispatchers also experience higher rates of substance misuse, divorce, anxiety and depression, Landward said. Oftentimes they’ll isolate or overwork themselves, just to “distract from the quietness that comes in between the rescues.”

With that in mind, Meyer is working to create a more comfortable and open work atmosphere, and Flora is key.

If someone needs to step away for a bit, they don’t have to explain — they can take Flora on a brief walk and get some fresh air. She greets operators as they walk in the door each day, and she sees them off with a wag of her tail.

“If she’s sitting there, it’s instant smile — instant ‘Oh, good morning!” Wallin said. “She helps everybody start their day in high place so that they have a little bit of wiggle room with their mental health.”

How Flora helps

To reduce burnout, Landward recommended that emergency agencies establish peer support teams and employee assistance programs — two resources SLC911 already offers.

Probably most important, Landward said, is normalizing how difficult the work is and allowing employees to “reset.”

A two-step exercise Landward uses to “reset” the brain involves a deep breath to connect with one’s senses, then visualizing a “source” they have for calm. These sources can be anything from a loved one to a memory.

The exercise puts things into context, which the brain can’t do when it’s in responder mode, Landward said.

“Being with an animal that gives you unconditional positive regard, just being able to stroke its hair and being able to feel its love — that’s a sense and a source,” Landward said. “It calms the body and the mind.”

This is how Dale says Flora helps SLC911 — and the countless other first responders she comes into contact with at the Public Safety Building.

“When you can get that decompression, that comfort — that allows you to be more prepared and more mentally ready to take that next 911 call, to deal with that next house fire or cardiac arrest or homicide or whatever it may be,” Dale said.

Editor’s note • If you or people you know are at risk of self-harm, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides 24-hour support at 1-800-273-8255. This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.