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Welcome to "Today's Story Hour with Cinnamon" – where real-life experiences take center stage! In this episode, Cinnamon takes us on a trip down memory lane, back to her very first ride along.
Picture this: December 20th, 2017 – the date that sparked the beginning of Cinnamon's journey onto a medic unit. As she reminisces about that fateful day, you'll get a firsthand account of the unexpected turns and eye-opening moments that unfolded during her very first ride along.
In a recent episode, the importance of ride alongs for anyone stepping into the world of first responder therapy was emphasized. Cinnamon passionately shares how these experiences, even if you're just on the sidelines of the arena, offer invaluable insights into the reality of the field. After all, you can't truly understand the challenges and triumphs of the arena unless you've been in it or right by its side.
And here's the twist – this ride along wasn't just any ride along; it was a catalyst for Cinnamon's journey towards becoming a culturally competent clinician for first responders. For potential clinicians out there, we want you to help you learn how to do this work the right way. It's crucial for clinicians to go beyond theory and truly understand the challenges our first responders face.
So, buckle up for a ride of emotions, unexpected revelations, and the raw authenticity that is "Today's Story Hour with Cinnamon"!
DISCLAIMER:
After the Tones Drop has been presented and sponsored by Whole House Counseling. After the Tones Drop is for informational purposes only and does not constitute for medical or psychological advice. It is not a substitute for professional health care advice diagnosis or treatment. Please contact a local mental health professional in your area if you are in need of assistance. You can also visit our shows resources page for an abundance of helpful information.
ATTD Music Credits (Music from #Uppbeat):
Erin: It's time to hit record when the singing starts
Cinnamon: Oh, when I start singing,
Erin: that's the cue like that. You're
Cinnamon: that means it's time do I do, is that,
Erin: We've started a lot of episodes
Cinnamon: with me singing?
Erin: hmm. It doesn't always make the cut.
Cinnamon: And I'm not like good.
Erin: No, but it's fun. I mean, I don't mean it like no, you're not good But it is fun.
Cinnamon: Yeah. it's like that moment where Cinnamon's brain will turn something into a song. And because I do it all the time, when I do it here, we now know it's an indicator to hit the record button. Okay. I'm cool. I got that. That makes
Erin: I mean you never know where no we're gonna get like the next top 40 Opportunity on the show and we want to make sure that we get it right
Cinnamon: Okay.
Erin: Okay.
Cinnamon: Hi. Welcome to Erin and I's conversation. Tangial. That's the clinical word for that. Tangial. When we talk about things that have nothing to do.
Erin: and chronic.
Cinnamon: Chronic and tangible. Um, talk about things that nobody wears. Yeah. Okay. Focus. What are we gonna talk about today? Erin?
Erin: today's story hour with Cinnamon, from what I [00:01:00] understand, but I know there's more to it, but this is an opportunity for you to share a story about an experience that you had with a ride along. Your very first.
Cinnamon: Yeah,
Erin: very first ride along.
Cinnamon: it was, it, and I wouldn't even have thought about about it. It wouldn't have come up on our radar had it not popped up in, um, one of my social media memories. And it popped up on December 20th, and the original date was 2017. So, that gives you an idea. I, I was It wasn't very long before I found my way onto a truck and, uh, a squad or a medic unit.
Yeah. So, it was one of those things that we were even talking about in a previous episode with Jess Flores of like, if you're going to do this at a bare minimum, you need to do ride alongs, because You can't talk about being in the arena if you haven't been in the arena. And even if [00:02:00] you're just on the sidelines of the arena, you get a better idea of what's happening on the inside.
And,
Erin: Well, hold on. Let me say this. When she says talking about doing this, she's talking about being a clinician for first responders because she didn't, there was no context to that. So I just want to, yeah. If you're talking about being a culturally competent clinician, then you
Cinnamon: Yeah.
Erin: Okay.
Cinnamon: And this is also where you will see that Erin and I are excellent partners because she knows what I mean when no one else does and she can oftentimes translate, right? Like that time that our practice manager was like, I don't know what you mean cinnamon and a text message.
And then the next text was Erin saying, this
is what she means. So again, sharing a brain. Um, so yes, uh, our guest Jess Flores was talking about the importance of, uh, doing write alongs to be able to do the work of, being a civilian clinician, but competent. So, my first ride along, I started in September, so it was like within [00:03:00] my first four months.
And, that was a really big, heavy four months. So, I should start by saying, if I could do it again or coach somebody else into doing it, I would say, don't wait four months. but, we had trainings in the department, we had a arson trial. And once we got through that, then it was kind of like you could do all the other stuff, but we were very focused those first three months on just getting us through a criminal trial.
Erin: There was more to this than you just telling the story because you said something about So, So, Dr. Shauna Springer and reading her book, right?
Cinnamon: Oh yeah,
Erin: I joked and said it's story hour, but you had also mentioned something about how far in this little bit of time the department has come. You have come the whole, um, you know,
Cinnamon: Comparison of
Erin: I was going to say campaign. That's not the word I'm looking for. the mission that we're on has come in terms of. Breaking the stigma, the movement, right? So I kind of want to say, like, there was a lot of reasons why you wanted to talk about this today.
It wasn't just about, hey, let me tell you a story about my first ride [00:04:00] along. Yippee! It was, there was more.
Cinnamon: Yeah, and Erin can attest to this. I'm a nighttime journaler and a lot of my most creative thinking comes out at bedtime or after everybody else is in bed, I can just kind of like think and A lot of this came to me last night because we had had the right along on the list and then in the context of thinking about the right along all this other stuff was popping up like The growth and the movement and what I didn't know when I started and what I was exposed to early on That I didn't understand the weight of who I was learning from comparatively um, so the city manager came to our agency said, can you loan us a clinician, uh, uh, vote happened without my knowledge.
And I. won, um, the, the vote. And so they asked me if I wanted to do this and I said I was absolutely down for it. I did not know what that meant. I certainly didn't know it [00:05:00] was going to turn into this, but it sounded like something new and interesting and I'm always up for that. it was only a year after I'd moved, uh, out of Columbus and into Cincinnati.
So I really didn't know much about this area. and so I didn't understand the kind of department that I was entering. I probably didn't fully understand that for like two years, but. now I can see why it was such a big deal because this was one of those old school, super traditional, like very old, long ago established fire departments where tradition and doing it the old way and tough guys kind of was the, the mentality and I did not know that it wasn't normal for a department to get 15, 000 runs a year.
And so now when I hear people say, Oh, we're really busy, we got 2000 runs this year. Um, to me, I'm like, um, that doesn't sound like a lot, but if you think that [00:06:00] there's 365 days in a year, that's a lot of runs per day. Um, when you divvy it up like that. So, you know, obviously departments that have one station and two or three people staffed are going to be very different.
So I did not realize that I was walking into, A place that had their ways in cement and I was coming in a Yeah, like a year after This had happened The event that and you can go back and listen to the very first episode if you want to hear
