When you strip away, onion layer after onion layer, all the differences and nuances that make up the typical firefighter, you’re left with a very others-focused human. If this others focus wasn’t the reason we got into this gig, it is often the reason we stay. Our service to others is what we teach our recruits, portray to our communities, and the narratives we tell ourselves as we define fire service culture.
And when we ditch the job shirt for a spiffy Hawaiian button-down or a too-tight workout tee, the others-focused part tags along. It doesn’t start and stop at the firehouse door.
Again, we either became firefighters because we were so others focused or became so others focused because we wanted to remain firefighters. Repeat that once or twice to really understand the impact.
We are so others focused, in fact, that some of the best health and wellness advice available tells us to take a few steps back from that focus — to shift some of the focus to ourselves. We are encouraged to take up hobbies, meditate, walk in nature, do yoga, journal, create boundaries and just have some good old me time.
All sound advice; you should do it.
And when you get done journaling about how your yoga session went, consider turning back to that core value, that others focus. You can take what is often blamed for burning you out, beating you down, and make it what raises you up.
Yeah, yeah, nice words, you say. But where’s the proof?
Thought you’d never ask.
It turns out, there’s a copious amount of research on volunteering’s impact on our wellness. That research tells us that those who volunteer their time on others focused activities reap some very real health and wellness benefits. And they are improvements to conditions that have long dogged firefighters. Those include reduced anxiety, lower blood pressure, reduced depression, reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, better cognitive executive functions and a longer life — actually four years longer, which is kind of like getting re-elected.
“To most firefighters, this won’t come as a huge surprise,” says Sara Jahnke. She is a senior scientist with the Center for Fire, Rescue & EMS Health Research, and she launched Science to the Station: A Health and Wellness Alliance. “We’ve all come away with those warm, fuzzy feelings from helping others; I think it is called happiness. Seriously, science shows there are real benefits to the volunteer, and that is exciting because it gives us another way to protect and heal ourselves.”
The trick, as one study found, is to make sure your volunteer efforts benefit others, not you. A paper published by Volunteering Australia in late 2021 did a deep dive into scientific research on the mental health benefits of volunteering.
One of the findings was that people reported better mental health when their volunteer work benefited others. That benefit evaporated when the volunteering was self-focused — such as doing it to learn a new skill or broaden career networks.
Another nugget from the Australian paper is those who were being treated for mental health conditions reported improvements in rebuilding self-identity and returning to a feeling of living a normal life when they engaged in volunteering activity compared with those who did no volunteering.
A 2016 study that looked at the benefits of volunteering on the U.K. population found even those who reported infrequently volunteering experienced mental health benefits. Those who never volunteered — not so much; they got zilch. That study examined population-wide data collected from 1991 to 2008. By tracking subjects over many years, they found older people benefited more from volunteering than younger people. However, a study out of the U.S. published in 2023 that looked at previous research, reported even adolescents benefit from doing volunteer work, and concurred that older individuals benefited considerably more.
A 2020 study that examined the health benefits in older adults who volunteered at least 100 hours per year showed, among other things, their mortality rate dropped by 44%.
In short, some volunteering appears better than none, but more is better. Focusing that volunteer work on benefiting others gives the volunteer the greatest benefit. And volunteering can be a useful way to guard against mental health issues, and be an effective way to help treat serious ones.
When you peel it all back, our strength really can be, well, our strength. Putting in the time to help others with no expected return or self-interest turns out to be one of the better self-help tools available.
