The “Why” Behind Warrior’s Rest

Warrior’s Rest Foundation (WRF) is on a mission to help First Responders heal from frontline traumas and empower them to live healthy, productive lives – personally and professionally. 

When Warrior’s Rest was founded in 2018, the goal was to make the mental health of First Responders a priority. Each of the people in the beginning were First Responders themselves, and every conversation revolved around how they could use their experiences to help those that came after them. Gary Isbell, a retired police and highway patrol officer, shared what Warrior’s Rest set out to do:

“We had seen the difference that focusing on your mental health and providing peer support and then plus having the clinical support afterwards, could change lives and save lives. And our goal was to make that the norm instead of the exception.”

In an average person’s life span, they will experience five to seven traumatic events. In the average career of a First Responder, they will experience anywhere from 500 to 700 traumatic events.

Warrior’s Rest is helping First Responders learn to heal from this reality, and especially, to not suffer alone. This team is made up of people who have been there. They know first-hand the traumas First Responders experience almost daily, and provide resources and training to help them combat the build-up that comes along with many distressing incidents. 

“What drives the people who do this job is to try to keep all the people who come after us from having to go through what we went through … We can’t do anything about the trauma they are going to go through. They are going to see things, sometimes it is going to be daily, that this trauma is going to build up on them. But how they react to it, and the resources out there available to them, are key.”

Warrior’s Rest offers resources, programs, trainings, and a listening ear to all First Responders in whatever situation they find themselves in. If you need someone to talk to, please reach out here: https://warriorsrestfoundation.org/get-help/.

If you would like to support First Responders through the work of Warrior’s Rest, we invite you to make a gift here: https://warriorsrestfoundation.org/donate-now/.

Over the next few weeks we will share more stories of resilience. We hope you’ll join us on this journey.