Embedded First Responder Chaplaincy: Caring for Our Most Valuable and Vulnerable Public Servants

First Responders comprise a large and tightly interwoven family linked with one another across the nation. Collectively, they are our most valuable but also most vulnerable public servants. The many stressors accompanying their unique jobs are life-altering and greatly impact the quality of life for them and their families. First Responders serve and protect us daily, often putting their health and even their lives in peril. Yet the public that relies constantly on their vigilance and skills understand little of the sacrifices they endure for our benefit. 

This book shares in depth the work of the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist's First Responder Chaplaincy Program's (FRCP) team members, who essentially function as First Responders to the First Responders. It includes the FRCP's history, development, staffing and training, and is a comprehensive, descriptive and quantitative effort to highlight and value its work.

Rev. Glenn Davis has served since 2016 as the Chaplain Director of the First Responder Chaplaincy Program (FRCP) in the FaithHealth Division of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist (AHWFB). The FRCP is a one-of-a-kind innovation as a hospital-based, community-focused model of chaplaincy delivering highly proactive, on-scene care to our most valuable and vulnerable public servants and their families.Prior to moving to AHWFB and developing the FRCP, Chaplain Davis was the full-time Chaplain for the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office (FCSO) for over 27 years, serving as a member of the Command Staff while assisting the FCSO and other local and regional agencies and organizations. Currently, he and his team are proudly continuing to serve the FCSO as well as many other First Responders and stakeholders in Winston-Salem and Forsyth County. Expectations are that the FRCP will eventually grow to serve other communities within the Atrium Health network.The FRCP provides on-call staff support and crisis intervention for law enforcement, other First Responder groups, and their family members as well as a broad range of survivors-victims-witnesses of crime and other catastrophic events. Chaplain Davis and his team routinely deploy 24/7/365 to assist law enforcement, fire, EMS and other organizations in the aftermath of critical incidents and to deliver traumatic messages while being alongside the First Responders who are also affected by these life-157altering events. The team's embedded relationships with First Responder agencies offer many opportunities to teach wellness and resiliency throughout the community and build extensive webs of trust that are invaluable when communities are under stress and responding to multiple threats involving public safety.Chaplain Davis continues to collaborate throughout the community assisting many groups with a particular focus on teaching First Responders but also clergy, congregational leaders and other care providers who seek to enhance their skill sets to better care for all our public servants and each other. Improving the crisis response readiness of faith communities, neighborhoods and workplaces is of vital importance given that all can be impacted by a broad range of traumatic events.Chaplain Davis is an ordained Baptist minister and a graduate of the College of Charleston (BS) and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div.) and the Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) Residency Program at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist. Glenn is married to Patti Davis with whom he has a son, daughter, and granddaughter.

Dr. Teresa Cutts completed her post-doctoral fellowship in Health Psychology from the University of Tennessee (UT) College of Medicine in 1987. From 1988 to 1994, she worked as a staff psychologist at Baptist Memorial Hospital. From 1993 to 2001, she was a private practitioner at Memphis Center for Women and Families, with a focus on health psychology. Since 1987, she served as a consultant to the NIH Gastroparesis multi-site consortium.From 2001 to 2005, she was Director of Program Develop ment at the Church Health Center, a comprehensive, faith-based health program for the under-served. She held a joint clinical appointment in Preventive Medicine and Psychiatry at UT, 2003-2008, University of Memphis' School of Public Health, 2009-2013, and still holds an appointment at Memphis Theological Seminary. She is a Visiting Professor at the University of Capetown's School of Family Medicine and Public Health and has co-authored/published numerous book chapters and articles.