Along with the community of James Smith's trauma is that experienced by the people called to investigate and give aid. One Prince Albert group provides help for first responders dealing with the fallout. (Susan McNeil/paNOW Staff)

By Susan McNeil

Mental health support

Filling the gap: River Valley group provides support for first responders, veterans at inquest

Jan 30, 2024 | 5:00 PM

First responders across central Saskatchewan have witnessed much trauma over the last few years starting in 2018 with the Humboldt Bronco’s bus crash and more recently, coping with the fallout of the mass killing in the James Smith Cree Nation community near Melfort in 2022.

Code Oranges are few and far between so having two in the same geographic area is highlighting the efforts of people who work with first responders to cope with the aftermath.

River Valley Reslience Retreat, a Prince Albert-based program is doing its best to help where it can.

Michelle McKeavney was at the inquest into the stabbings and said her group was called by the Royal Canadian Legion’s Saskatchewan Command because one of the victims – Earl Burns – was a veteran.

“We reached out and got a family member who assisted us in in what they needed while the manhunt was still on,” said McKeavney.

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In addition to helping veterans and their families, River Valley also focuses on first responders, including the RCMP officers who responded, band members, medical personnel or media.

The call was how the retreat forged a friendship with the Burns family and they have been in contact since.

The goal of the retreat is not to provide mental health treatment; they fill in gaps that first responders encounter when negotiating services and government departments after emotional injury on the job.

“We’re coming from a peer perspective. We’re not here to replace the counsellors, the therapists the other people that may be there to support.”

Retired Staff Sergeant Darren Simons, who was in charge of the Melfort RCMP detachment on Sept. 4, 2022 is himself a veteran and served with the Prince Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, just like Earl Burns did.

That connection led to an intense emotional interchange between Simons and Burn’s daughter, Deborah, who asked how police could drive past her father, who died in a school bus during the stabbings, and not stop to help.

During his testimony, both Simons and Deborah Burns fought back tears as Simons told her that Earl was his brother veteran.

He apologized that Earl was not given care earlier. The examiner who conducted his autopsy said that the veteran would have died even if officers had stopped. Medical care was too far away to arrive in time.

“Any veteran family and there’s another veteran family in need – every veteran will do their best whether they know that person or not, to reach out and provide support of any kind,” McKeavney said.

It’s a connection that hits close to home for McKeavney herself as her children’s father is Indigenous and Scottish and a veteran of the PPCLI as well.

“This is providing closure. From one military member to a military family, his words resonated with them that day and vice versa,” she said.

She still maintains a connection with the Burns family and offers the retreat as a place of refuge for them as they need it – as she also does for the RCMP officers who responded or medical staff or “anyone who had boots on the ground.”

A positive change that McKeavney sees is that organizations like the RCMP and others have created peer support systems themselves, a sign that the stigma against admitting a mental health concern is lessening.

“The one thing that came out of this for me in how we’re moving mental health along, is that everybody is going to experience something at some point but its how you move through it and how you move on your post-traumatic stress journey afterwards that is the key.”

One of the main things River Valley does is provide very practical help for people in dealing with matters like WCB applications or various government agencies, which has led to the creation of a program called The Gap.

McKeavney said the peer support program provides help to many, whenever they need it.

In the case of the Broncos crash, some of the responders there, which include three hospitals, several fire departments, multiple ambulance services and the RCMP, used River Valley’s resources even before their physical location was up and running.

Those calls still come and people also will go to the retreat’s location and relax while getting help from the staff.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com