How public safety facilities improve wellbeing among first responders
Public Safety expert Todd LaVold explores how design supports mental and physical wellbeing for police, firefighters and EMS personnel
Omaha Police Department West Precinct
Recent Perspectives
Police officers, firefighters, EMS personnel, dispatchers and other public servants operate under unique levels of stress, responsibility and exposure to trauma and hazards.
When public safety staff are well-supported, they’re better equipped to engage with the community positively. Facilities that prioritize wellness project an image of professionalism, care and respect, giving first responders a supportive environment to help them perform at their best.
As architects and designers, we can contribute to improving the conditions that affect public safety officials’ wellbeing.
Consider: firefighters have a 14% higher risk of dying from cancer than the general U.S. population and while data varies, both police and firefighters face higher rates of suicide than the general public. 59% of firefighters report poor sleep quality, and PTSD prevalence is 15–20% among firefighters vs the general population of approximately 6%.
Years of Potential Life Lost, a public health metric which indicates diseases or conditions contributing to deaths at younger ages, suggests this metric is 21 times greater than that of the general population for Police Officers. Police officers have one of the poorest cardiovascular disease health profiles of any occupation. Poor diets and sleep habits, obesity, hypertension, sudden physical exertion, and acute and chronic psychological stress are all contributing factors.
Viewed with an eye toward enhancing individual and group performance, architects and designers can implement tangible changes that have a positive impact on first responder wellness.
Physical Health
Encouraging physical and nutritional wellness helps maintain strength, stamina and resilience enabling physical readiness. A workforce with strong physical health is less prone to injury and recovers more quickly from physical and psychological stresses.
Properly sized fitness rooms should provide access to daylight and outdoors along with room to grow as their department grows. Convenient access to exercise/fitness opportunities increases the chance of staff taking advantage of it. Combined with leadership buy-in, this can be a game changer.
While officers are on patrol, they are often limited to their squad vehicles. Providing a breakroom with easy, secure access to the outdoors, daylight and communal dining promote healthy eating habits and camaraderie, a proven stress reducer.
Mental Health and Stress Management
There is a toll that high-stress, high-trauma environments have on first responders. Decompression spaces allow personnel to step away from intense situations and mentally reset. Designing intentional spaces like these signals organizational support for mental health, reducing stigma around stress management.
Access to daylight is important, but also the ability to tune out the world if needed not only through proper window treatments, but acoustic considerations.
Comfortable seating, biophilic elements such as plants or natural materials and textures are calming signals to the brain which can help change the trajectory of the situation for someone in crisis.
These rooms can also double as places to practice mindfulness techniques, as peer-to-peer discussion rooms and as places to sleep or nap as first responders often have irregular, unexpected or extended shifts.
North Metro Regional Public Safety Training Facility
Training
Reality-based training scenarios which allow public safety officials to be repeatedly exposed to controlled, high-pressure situations enhance performance in the real world and lower the possibility of mistakes or lapses in judgement. This type of training has shown to significantly reduce errors in judgment and decision making, especially with force-on-force situations compared to traditional classroom learning. Further, education and hands-on training can preemptively help first responders deal with stressful situations.
We can design simple, hands-on training scenarios into first responder facilities. Examples include:
Design secure outdoor space away from the public eye to practice car stops.
Locate strategically placed windows designed to practice bale out, rescue, and ladder training exercises within fire stations.
Provide dedicated spaces for virtual reality technology to improve decision making in real-world, pressure-filled situations.
Design realistic and flexible training spaces to prepare responders for stressful, changing situations.
Having onsite access to these spaces allows training to occur repeatedly over time, a principle that is proven to increase learning efficiency.
Resiliency
During extended emergencies (e.g., natural disasters, public health crises, civil unrest), staff may spend days in their facility. Wellness-oriented spaces, sleeping quarters, kitchens, showers, exercise areas all help sustain them during times of extreme stress.
Resilient facilities purposefully change with changing situations and do so with the aim of minimizing stress during stressful times. Facility design needs to flex between routine operations and critical incidents without prep or warning and have critical infrastructure like emergency power, communications, lighting and ventilation ready.
Hennepin County Medical Examiner Facility
Morale and Retention
Investments in facilities and design excellence foster pride, boosts morale and aid in retaining skilled professionals in a field where turnover is costly. Honoring the profession through design considerations like murals, history walls, dedications and memorials strengthens a sense of belonging to a unit, department or station as well as to the greater profession and community. This sense of honor and connection has been shown to reduce burnout, improve job satisfaction and enhance overall wellbeing.
Workplace design influences organizational culture and vice versa. Being in tune with organizational philosophy can influence and enhance the design which can then reinforce the organizational directives.
Lake Elmo City Center
Safety
First responders face hazards every day. Firefighters are exposed to carcinogens from a fire scene and diesel particulates from their own fire trucks. Police officers may encounter fentanyl. EMS personnel may be exposed to blood from a medical incident. Each of these situations, and more, involve in-the-field procedures and back-at-the-station facilities to properly decontaminate and protect oneself.
Psychological safety is less tangible, but nonetheless important. Intuitive layouts, circulation and clear public/private boundary definition encourage staff to “let their guard down” or help them feel in control of their environment.
Lastly, clearly dedicated zones for high-stress operations versus areas for decompression or focused work reduces cognitive overload and increases psychological safety.
Public servants have tough jobs with many wellness impacts. Through thoughtful design, we can help promote wellness to ease stressors and help them serve their community.
About the author
Todd B. LaVold, AIA
Market Sector Leader - Public Safety
TBLavold@leoadaly.com
Todd LaVold is a market sector leader and public safety subject matter expert with more than 25 years of experience designing and managing myriad public safety facilities including police stations, fire stations, first responder training centers and justice facilities.
Recognized for his deep understanding of the operational and technical requirements unique to public safety architecture, Todd is a trusted resource for public safety design across all LEO A DALY offices. His portfolio includes leading complex, mission-critical projects that enhance safety, wellness, training and operational efficiency for first responders and their communities.