Navigating Social Challenges in Small Rural Towns: Insights from a Rural Setting

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

First responders in small communities often know the people they serve, blurring the lines between personal and professional roles

By Anastasia Miller, PhD

There are noticeable differences between working in a large city and a rural or wilderness location. Each has its unique challenges, opportunities, and benefits. In small rural towns, everyone knows everyone.

First responders play a crucial role in emergency response and as community fixtures. Unlike urban and suburban areas, where firefighting departments are often large and staffed with full-time professionals, rural towns typically rely on volunteer firefighters or smaller teams with limited resources. These firefighters usually not only volunteer but also hold other positions in the community, further solidifying them as pillars of their communities (for example, in one rural town I lived in, the local pastor was a frequent volunteer firefighter/EMT).

While their presence is often a comforting and stabilizing factor in places where resources are limited, the unique dynamics of small towns also present distinct social challenges to navigate in community interactions.

Although it is easy to immediately understand some of the challenges people living in rural towns face, such as firefighters often having to cover large areas with limited resources, the social aspects should be emphasized more.

In some medical fields, there’s a concept of “dual relationships,” where a person has both a professional and a personal relationship with another individual – sometimes muddying both. Boundaries are violated when this happens, creating undesirable behaviors, such as favoritism, excessive personal involvement, or inappropriate conduct. This concept has been thoroughly discussed for years in the mental-health arena, but should be expanded to a more comprehensive range of “helping professions.”

Setting Boundaries

In small, close-knit communities, first responders often find themselves serving their neighbors, friends, or acquaintances. This overlap can blur the line between personal and professional interactions, making it essential for first responders to establish clear personal boundaries.

There are two main sides to this: how the first responder acts, and how the other people act. We’ll focus first on the individual and how he or she should approach the situation, then we’ll cover other people.

1. Maintain Professional Boundaries

First responders must be mindful of their presence in the community. This involves setting for yourself explicit guidelines for interactions with community members outside the firehouse.

While this may not be as fraught with complications as a physician or therapist relationship, there’s still a tight rope to walk. Because first responders are invited into people’s houses and lives during sometimes embarrassing moments, it’s essential to not breach this trust. Not only is it potentially illegal to disclose what you know about another individual, it is unethical and a violation of trust. It’s essential to communicate your boundaries clearly to the community, explaining the importance of keeping professional and personal lives separate to better serve everyone.

2. Educate and Set Expectations

In rural settings, where everyone knows each other, it might be necessary to explain why certain interactions could be inappropriate or harmful. There is often a culture of “everyone knows everyone’s business,” and it’s not always well-received by others when you try to establish boundaries.

Hopefully, you can have calm discussions about it. It doesn’t have to be a formal meeting or anything so grand – it can just be one-on-one conversations when it comes up. If you feel it’s a systemic issue and needs a bit more “heft” behind it, maybe your fire department can draft an official policy to point to (if you don’t already have one). Which leads us to the third step.

3. Find Support in Navigating Community Pressure

Although no one is exactly in your situation, or feels exactly the pressures you do, other people can empathize with you and have probably had to deal with it before.

Odds are, the people who have been there a long time have to navigate the same challenges (hopefully, successfully) you are facing now. I will be the first to caution that you need to take all advice with a grain of salt, and that what works for one individual may not work for another (I have learned that REPEATEDLY throughout my career – if your gut is telling you that following some advice will not work out for you, you probably need to follow your gut. Even if it worked out great for them – follow your instincts).

Just being able to express frustration over the situation with a peer can be very therapeutic. Thanks to the internet, you have an even wider range of support than just those in your community. You can find online support groups (the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation online virtual peer support group comes to mind). There are more resources available than there ever have been before, regardless of where you live. Take advantage of them if you need them.

On the other side of this “dual relationship,” sometimes you do everything correct and the other people in the community do not take you seriously or give you an appropriate amount of respect because of their personal relationship with you (e.g., “You can’t tell me anything I don’t know because I changed your diapers.”)

Handling Boundary Violations

Despite you adhering to professionalism, others can violate these boundaries, either intentionally or unintentionally. In these situations, it’s important to remain professional.

1. Calmly Explain, Again, Your Boundaries and Why You Have Them

If someone you know starts to mix up your personal and professional roles, gently but firmly reiterate your established professional boundaries and the reasons for them. You may have had this conversation a hundred times, but you need to have it again.

2. Create a Boundary Management Plan

If there is a situation and/or person that continually will not respect you, you might be forced to create a boundary management plan.

First, start documenting when boundary violations occur. Develop a “resolution protocol” – either for yourself or the department – explicitly stating what consequences will happen if violations continue (e.g., you’ll be forced to stop interacting with someone, or you’ll be forced to report incidents to your commanding officer). Then stick to it. That’s easier said than done, but it’s necessary. Sometimes, all you can do is extract yourself from the situation.

Even though social media is in the background of many people’s daily lives, we sometimes forget to include that in the discussion of professionalism and dual roles.

Sometimes things we would never think of saying or doing in real life, we feel free to do on social media. Sometimes this is liberating and healthy, other times it crosses lines and is unprofessional. The easiest way to help reduce conflict if you’re an avid social media user is to have separate personal and professional (or volunteer persona) accounts. Not only will this help reiterate to everyone that you have two different roles, you’re less likely to violate a department policy, because you’ll be putting yourself in a “work” frame of mind when posting on your professional account.

Anastasia Miller, PhD, is program director and clinical assistant professor, Healthcare Leadership, University of Louisville