A Shoulder to Lean On: CDOT's New Peer Support Program
By Quentin Boose, Process Improvement Intern
December 20, 2018
Each month, an average of 45 people die on Colorado’s roadways, and more than half occur on roads operated and maintained by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). With each incident, CDOT maintenance employees are often a part of the first response team on the scene of the accident; they are on call 24/7 in case of roadway emergencies and their responsibilities range from traffic control to assisting other first responders. With demanding duties in such tragic events, Transportation Maintenance (TM) employees are non-traditional first responders for such incidents, and can consequently witness traumatizing scenes. Maintenance staff can then experience emotional and mental-health challenges, which may develop into depression or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Traffic due to accident
CDOT has started the first ever state DOT Peer Support Program and has trained the first cohort of 11 peer supporters spread around Colorado. The goal of this program is for all maintenance employees to have someone at their level to talk to and who understands what they’re going through. “Transportation Maintenance (TM) workers do some amazing things; they save people’s lives pretty much on a daily basis,” explains Susan Rafferty, Chief Human Resource Officer at CDOT, “Traditional first responder organizations have found the most successful mental health programs are peer supported, with the idea that no one understands better what TMs are going through, and what they face than someone in a similar position.”
A Department of Transportation pioneer with this project, CDOT is working alongside the world-renowned Trauma, Health, and Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS), which specializes in providing peer support to first responders.
Familiar with the challenges of maintaining Colorado’s transportation system and part of the first cohort coached in peer support, is Carl Cochran, Transportation Maintenance III of Region 2 (southeast Colorado). “The biggest advantage of this program is the empathy. I can say: ‘I’ve been there, I know what you’re going through and I’ve dealt with what you’re experiencing right now,’” he stated. “Going through the class, our instructors were surprised at the trauma we had seen. They didn’t realize CDOT TMs are first responders to significant accidents across the state.”
The first CDOT cohort completed 40 hours of counseling training, and they will participate in ongoing training to further their peer health education. The first peer counselor cohort was selected through a competitive application process, and already demonstrated peer-to-peer support with their colleagues. “Before the course, I was pretty much already doing [peer support],” said Cochran, “The guys would come and talk to me if they were having problems or if they just had questions or needed anything. So that’s why I jumped in to peer support with both feet; I was ready for the responsibility.”
Currently, there are two peer supporters in each of CDOT’s five regions, but programmatic growth is planned in 2019 to best meet staff needs. The goal is to have peer supporters in every office or within every area. There are going to be several training sessions per year to increase the supporters and expand the program to engineering. Many CDOT engineers are out on the road and are abreast to these traffic incidents as well. “Eventually we're hoping to implement [the program] across the entire agency. It's going to take us a while to get there because really our primary focus at this point is on maintenance and engineering employees out on the road,” Rafferty explained. “We really want to make this part of the culture so that it’s really ingrained at CDOT,” she concluded.