CONDITIONED TO GRIEVE OR DEAD INSIDE: LINE OF DUTY DEATHS AND MENTAL RESILIENCE

In the course of a firefighting career, firefighters attend line-of-duty funerals for other firefighters, law enforcement officers, emergency medical service (EMS) professionals, and perhaps members of the armed forces from within their community, in addition to funerals of friends and family members. The basic purpose of a funeral in society allows the family and friends to say goodbye to a loved one. The fire service does a lot more. The fire service communal response and normalization of death rituals are something that few, if any, other death-related (DR) occupations do as effectively. This thesis considers the importance of death rituals from a historical perspective. It then examines mental resilience by comparing culture, community, and social identity in the fire service with other DR occupations. Current research on death and trauma in the professional workplace is limited and there is an absence of research connecting consistent participation in death rituals through funeral attendance with mental resilience when encountering death, in particular a line-of-duty death. Policy recommendations include instituting programs that normalize funeral attendance, and additional areas of research include studying those who have had early positive experiences with death and dying and their mental resiliency today. Civilian, FDNY Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.