The Importance of Reaching out for Help

Scott Geiselhart was a firefighter for 24 years and a former assistant chief. He is a PTSD, addiction, and suicide-attempt survivor. Scott escaped a near-death experience on his road to discovery and recovery from his PTSD. Scott is now a national speaker who shares his message of healing and redemption with thousands of first responders, other professionals and students. He is also a co-author of the IAFC's Yellow Ribbon Report "Under the Helmet: Performing an Internal Size-up." As a mental health practitioner and certified peer support specialist, he has received crisis intervention training, suicide prevention training, and critical incident stress management training. He worked in crisis stabilization for four and half years helping individuals get back on their feet after mental health crisis situations. He has spoken at many conferences and events around the country such as the Bridge Retreat in Columbus, Ohio, EMDRIA conference in Minneapolis, MN, high schools, mental health and suicide prevention walks, State Fire Chiefs and Firefighters Association conferences, International Association of Fire Chiefs, the National Volunteer Fire Council conferences, etc. He has had many articles including articles in the Associated Press, FireRescue 1, Fire Engineering, NVFC Help Letter, etc. Scott will share his personal experiences, his journey recovering from PTSD, addiction, and a suicide attempt. He will talk about the years of isolating from friends and family, the darkness, hopelessness, nightmares, relationship issues, challenges with addiction, anger, along with the struggle to find help. Scott is speaking out with his life changing story in hopes of helping others recognize the symptoms of PTSD to help prevent them from going down the same path. His story is inspirational as he shares a message of post traumatic success and seeing in color again.