Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung attended “The Ceremony of WTCC’s Donation of Consolation Money for Firefighting Units Attended the TRA Taroko Express Rescue Mission and Funding for Rebuilding Firefighters’ Mental Strength Against Post-traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD) After a Major Rescue Mission” today (the 10th). Hsu Kuo-Yung expressed that “Firefighters who stand on the frontline to rescue lives can have the deepest sensory, psychological and emotional impacts at the disaster scene and then suffer from PTSD. By introducing a post-disaster counseling program, providing stress adaptation related information, psychological services and emotional supports, we can help to minimize physical and psychological impacts on rescue personnel after the rescue mission. We gratefully thank WTCC for its distincted insights and active support to our frontline firefighters by rebuilding their mental strength against post-traumatic stress disorder and enhancing their mental health literacy. All of these will reinforce our disaster response, rescue capacity as well as the resilience when facing major disasters in the future”.
Hsu Kuo-Yung mentioned that President of WTCC expressed his appreciation to all the first responders participated in the rescue mission of TRA Taroko Express Accident on April 2 this year, as they overcame all difficulties to rescue lives without taking a rest for days. This is the reason that WTCC has donated an amount of consolation money in order to encourage those participants tackling with future arduous missions. Moreover, since rescue personnel often suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder at certain level, WTCC decided to donate an amount of money as the funding for rebuilding rescue personnel’s mental strength against post-traumatic stress disorder after a major disaster. The generous donation of WTCC not only provides all frontline units with more professional resources, but also support all rescue personnel around the country attentively as a gentle strength.
Today’s donation ceremony was taken place at the National Fire Agency, Ministry of the Interior simply but grandly due to a number of safety measures during the pandemic. WTCC totally donated NTD1 million to Hualien County, Yilan County, Taipei City, New Taipei City and Keelung City fire department, as well as National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue Team (SSRT), totally 6 department and units. WTCC also donated NTD1.6 million to Firefighters Medical Care Charity Trust Fund and this amount of money will be used to rebuild rescue personnel’s mental strength against PTSD.