First Responder Operations
A 13-week Zoom course on the health and mental health of first responders. Begins 10 September 2026.
Develop the skills to be a culturally competent first responder mental health professional.
Overview
The Wright Institute offers a sequence of three courses unique in the world, focused on the lives and careers of first responders. First Responder Operations is the first course in that certificate.
Whether a first responder, a mental health practitioner, or a graduate student in healthcare, please join us in a unique course that brings together first responders, clinicians, researchers, and graduate students to learn about becoming a first responder mental health provider.
These courses are more important than ever as societal changes, AI, and climate change are bringing about an unprecedented number of challenges and disasters.
First responders, whether hospital ER staff, firefighters, police, paramedics, or search and rescue, need culturally competent care for how they and their families are impacted.
It is an opportunity to learn from first responders themselves and the latest research in this field. The class brings together first responders, seasoned first responder clinicians and trauma researchers.
Who should enrol
- First responders, including hospital ER staff, firefighters, police, paramedics and search and rescue
- Mental health practitioners working with, or hoping to work with, first responder communities
- Graduate students in healthcare building a specialism
Students join from different programs, different regions and different countries. No prior specialisation is required.
Topics covered
- PTSD
- Moral Injury
- Treatment Options
- Cultural Competency
- Stigma, Health & Reproductive Issues
- Climate Change & First Responding
- Clinical Privacy in the AI Era
- Officer Involved Shootings
- Chronic Pain
- Disability
- Suicide
- Family & Spousal Issues
- Departmental Issues
- Retirement
Format and schedule
- Delivery: Zoom
- Day and time: Thursday evenings, 5:00 to 8:00pm PST
- Dates: 10 September to 10 December 2026
- Length: 13-week trimester
- Structure: We invite in amazing first responders who lead discussion about the health and mental health issues of first responders. As a clinical researcher, Dr Diamond covers current research.
Your instructor
Dr Emily Diamond, PsyD, FRSPH is a clinical researcher and educator working at the intersection of adversity, chronic illness and health inequality.
- Director, The Health Inequality Studies Group
- Founder, The Flare Society for the study of chronic pain
- Principal Investigator, The Health Path Study of Adversity and Health
- Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health
- Co-founder, BRAVERR
If you are considering the course and have questions, Dr Diamond welcomes direct contact: ediamond@wi.edu
Cost and registration
Course cost: $750 USD.
- Course content questions: Dr Emily Diamond, ediamond@wi.edu
- Registration and enrolment questions: Cassandra Dilosa, cdilosa@wi.edu
Places are limited. Join us in September.
The certificate pathway
First Responder Operations is course one of three in the certificate in First Responder Mental Health. Each course can be taken on its own. Together they form a complete pathway into first responder clinical work.