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Comms Coach Podcast
Welcome to Comms Coach, the podcast that delves deep into the world of training and quality assurance for 9-1-1. Your host, Lori Henricksen, is a veteran in the field with more than 30 years experience as a dispatcher, trainer and high school teacher who started one of the country's first 9-1-1 Dispatch programs for High School students in Las Vegas, Nevada. In each episode, a lineup of expert guests dive into the critical aspects of emergency communications training, quality assurance and improvement. They share valuable insights, techniques, and best practices to help today's trainers and the next generation of unsung heroes. So whether you're an experienced dispatcher, leader, trainer or simply curious about how to set up and run training or QA programs in your center or school, get ready to embark on a journey of knowledge, growth, and inspiration. This is Comms Coach, building the strength behind every call.
Comms Coach Podcast
Season 1 Episode 4 Tina DeCola - Training and Peer Support
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What happens to the people who take the hardest calls—and who's there for them when the headset comes off? In this episode, host Lori Henricksen sits down with Tina DeCola, Communications Supervisor with Las Vegas Fire & Rescue and trainer with the Denise Amber Lee Foundation, for a deeply personal and practical conversation about dispatcher wellness and what peer support actually looks like inside a 911 comm center.
Tina brings 21 years of emergency communications experience to this conversation—including a suicidal-caller incident that left a lasting mark, and the experience of supporting dispatchers in the aftermath of the October 1 Las Vegas mass shooting. She doesn't talk around the hard stuff. She talks through it, and that's what makes this episode worth your time.
She breaks down what a peer support program really is, why it matters that dispatchers—not just clinicians—are on the team, and how peer support helps call-takers work through critical incidents, child deaths, suicidal callers, and the kind of trauma that doesn't just disappear when the shift ends. She also gets into the warning signs that often go unaddressed: compassion fatigue, burnout, and PTSD in the people we call the "first, first responders."
And if you're wondering whether your center could actually build something like this—Tina has answers for that too. She walks through how peer teams are structured, vetted, and trained, why confidentiality is the foundation everything else is built on, and how agencies can develop real wellness programs without a big budget by tapping subject matter experts, neighboring fire and police departments, and community resources that are often free or low-cost.
If you lead a comm center, supervise a team, or work the floor yourself, this episode is a reminder that taking care of your people isn't a luxury—it's part of the job.
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