Mood Disorders Society of Canada is proud to announce a new book being released by our Peer and Trauma Support Systems (P.A.T.S.S.) Team Leads Syd Gravel and Brad McKay.
“Walk the Talk”, introduces all the phenomenal “Boots-on-the-Ground” information that every organizational leader needs to have at their fingertips to go from having nothing or very little in place to reaching the gold standard in Peer and Trauma Support Systems within the workplace.
This amazing book addresses:
- Protecting Society’s Protectors
- Assessing an Organization’s Awareness
- Getting Management Onside
- Organizational Pre-Hiring Preparedness
- Organizational Support for Families
- Middle Management Leadership
- Developing CISM Teams
- Developing Peer Support Teams
- Staffing CISM and Peer Support Teams
- Organizational Training for CISM and Peer Support Teams
- How a CISM and Peer Support System Can Work
- Walking the Talk – The Last Word
- Survivor’s Testimonials
Developed by using over 55 years of experience and knowledge by two titans in the peer support and trauma management world and best-known speakers on police trauma survival.
Staff Sergeant (ret’d.) Brad McKay co-founder of the York Regional Quad-Services Critical Incident and Peer Support Teams and Staff Sergeant (ret’d.) Sylvio (Syd) Gravel, M.O.M., co-founder of the Ottawa Police Service’s Robin’s Blue Circle – an informal post shooting trauma peer team in existence since 1988. Both have been giving lectures and speeches on peer support and trauma management for years.
STAFF SERGEANT (RET’D.) SYLVIO (SYD) A. GRAVEL, M.O.M.
Syd Gravel is a former staff sergeant with thirty-one years of experience with the Ottawa Police Servce. He is one of the founding fathers of Robin’s Blue Circle, a post-shooting trauma team of peers, established in 1988.
Syd is a more than twenty-eight-year PTSD survivor and has been a peer supporter since 1988. In 2007, he was nominated by his peers and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, and inducted by the Governor General of Canada for the Order of Merit in Policing, Canada.
Since his retirement, he has devoted all his time and energy to speaking on developing resilience and resistence to trauma and setting up peer support systems. He has written and published “56 Seconds” and “How to Survive PTSD and Build Peer Support.”
In 2014, Syd developed a trail-blazing curriculum for the certification of peers in Canada, based on the guidelines and practice for the selection and training of peers developed by the Mental Health Commission of Canada. Syd is currently co-leading the Peer and Trauma Support Systems (P.A.T.S.S.) Team for the Mood Disorders Society of Canada. He is also a lead facilitator for peer workshops for Soldiers Helping Soldiers in Ottawa. The peer work focus is on helping homeless veterans. He has developed the content for the three-day peer training project – Transition to Communities for the Mood Disorder’s Society of Canada and is developing the content for a twenty-four hour on-line trauma management course through Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.
Syd is a board director for Badge of Life Canada. In 2016 he was nominated by the Mental Health Commission of Canada as a Canadian Champion of Mental Health.
STAFF SERGEANT (RET’D) BRAD MCKAY, C.T.S.S.
Brad McKay retired in 2015 after thirty-three years of service with the York Regional Police (YRP). In 1984, he was involved in a shooting incident that resulted in the loss of a life.
At that time, there were no formal peer support or mental health programs available at YRP, so he processed the event on his own with help from his network of family and friends.
The York CISM Team is unique and ground-breaking as a multidisciplinary team in that it supports all first responder services including police, fire, paramedic and emergency department staff. To enhance wellness at YRP, he started the Operational Stress Injury Prevention and Response Unit in 2013; he also created the York Regional Police Peer Support Team in 2014.
As a Certified Trauma Services Specialist with ATSS, Brad has responded to and coordinated hundreds of interventions for frontline responders and their families. Brad has been asked to appear on TV News to provide the first responder perspective. Currently, Brad is providing clinically supervised peer support for mental health professionals in York Region and is the peer lead for a local yoga group for first responders. Brad is proud and honoured to join Syd Gravel in co-leading the Peer and Trauma Support Systems (P.A.T.S.S.) Team. This is a team of highly skilled, trained, experienced and professional peer and mental health experts from across Canada. Many of these professionals have volunteered countless hours to support front- line responders.
Brad recently joined Badge of Life Canada as a senior police advisor and volunteers on two peer teams. A family man, Brad is a community-minded energetic advocate for wellness and peer support.
