In the last four weeks, the community has been rocked by five crashes on the Riverina's roads. Two of these collisions tragically resulted in fatalities.
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To the public, emergency workers are larger-than-life figures who run towards dangers the rest of us cower from, but who makes sure the first responders are looked after?
A study in 2017, led by Shannon Gray from Monash University, found that emergency workers are paying a high psychological and physical price for being the first on the scene of deaths, traumas, violence, chaos, disease and extreme temperatures.
Ambulance officers were at the highest risk of injury to their upper bodies. Firefighters and emergency workers were more likely to hurt their lower bodies, legs and feet, while police officers had 13 times greater the risk of mental health conditions than others.
Amy Barclay, a rescue paramedic, based in Wagga, faces high pressure scenarios daily.
"It is a little different from being a clinical paramedic," she said. "We take the patient into account straight away, but being the rescue team, we also need to deal with having access to and extricating the patient.
"We look at the broader aspect of a car accident."
At 33 years old, Ms Barclay has been in the job for 10 years, five of which have been as rescue paramedic.
"In my first 12 to 18 months, I changed my personality, and I had to mature quite quick," she said. "You have to learn how to deal with the trauma and emotion."
Ms Barclay and her partner were first on scene at a three-vehicle crash on Coolamon Road that tragically claimed the life of a pregnant woman in March.
"We were called for rescue, and the first reports were that someone was trapped," she said. "Unfortunately the young woman was deceased when we got there. We had two other patients we had to treat."
It is no simple task to attend a car accident, but this job was made even harder by the extreme nature of the crash and the dust storm that rolled in. Two crews took the other patients to the hospital, but the night was far from over for Ms Barclay.
"My partner and I stayed and waited for forensics and assisted them with lighting," she said. "We had to cut the car up to get the woman out.
"The hardest part for me - I am a mum of two kids - was when I found out she was pregnant. That cut deep, and that was difficult to deal with."
Ms Barclay said every paramedic deals with the weight of losing a patient differently, but for her doing everything in her power on the job makes it easier at the end of the day.
"You do have those jobs that go well, and you have to hold onto those," she said. "I have been doing this for 10 years, and I love my job, and I love helping people. That's how I keep going."
Carolyn Kent is the NSW Ambulance paramedic chaplain for the Murrumbidgee zone. Based out of Jerilderie, she follows up with any crews who have attended a significant event.
"These include self-harm, suicides, fatalities," Ms Kent said. "My job is to phone each crew member and decide whether they are fit to return to duty.
"The hardest part is there is no downtime so you could have a high-speed fatality that could have been mid-shift and then you have another job waiting for you."
Ms Kent also acts as a referral system for those who might need a follow-up with a professional.
"We have a huge array of services," she said. "The ambulance service has upped its game and trying to prevent PTSD. We are here 24 hours a day if they need support after a job."
Riverina Police District Superintendent Bob Noble said many people understand how hard it is for police to attend a crash, but there are a lot traumatic cases that people do not know about.
"The thing that is likely to cause the most trauma are the near-death situations," he said. "People getting assaulted on duty or being threatened with guns or knives. We see nasty arrests that get out of hand."
Superintendent Noble said there are disturbing instances such as child exploitation and child abuse that officers have to witness.
"Dealing with bereaved families of homicides and motor vehicle crashes is also tough," he said.
The Reverend Grant Bell, the chaplain for the Riverina Police District, said when officers are dealing with severe cases day in and day out, the trauma can often build up over several years.
"Sometimes an incident that might not appear too serious becomes serious because their level of resilience is broken down," he said. "I am ex-police, and my role is a support and pastoral care role for police and their families. I am here to make sure police are effective in what they do and make sure they are supporting the community in the best way that they can."
Superintendent Noble said support systems have developed in recent years to ensure any officer can access services they need.
"We have a traumatic incident register, which means we have got to register every officer that attended that scene," he said. "As Grant suggested, there is an accumulative effect, and traditionally we didn't log that. For instance, where a person is suffering a harmful effect, they will fill in an injury notification, and that sets in motion a formal process around getting them some help."
Superintendent Noble said services range from pastoral care to counselling or medical attention. Mr Bell said all the services work together to ensure a holistic approach when it comes to looking after officers on the beat.
Superintendent Noble said, as police, they do get exposed to hard situations, but they do so in order to protect the city.
"It's what we sign up for,' he said, adding that community members should never feel wary of expressing their support directly to a police officer on the street.
"It might not seem like much, but it goes a long way," Superintendent Noble said. "It will make all the difference to that person."
Mr Bell said police are only human with a shared a determined sense of purpose to protect the community.
Justin Bentley, a Turvey Park Fire and Rescue NSW station officer, said firefighters are first on scene and first through the door when a blaze breaks out.
"It's tough in a regional city as we are the only permanent crew, so we are at every emergency and we could know the people impacted," he said.
"It's always tough when there is a fatality. There was a house fire in Kooringal when a woman died, and the crew were trying to smash through walls to get to the person inside."
Mr Bentley said, as a firefighter, you work with the same crew for 24-hour shifts, which means often any mental health issues or struggles are picked up by coworkers.
"We also have a peer support network that checks in with those who attend serious events," he said.
Mr Bentley said he, and his fellow firefighters, hold onto the knowledge that they did not cause a crash or fire and they did everything they could to help.
"The fire department has a range of resources available [from psychologists to critical incident support] for their staff to access," he said.
Mr Bentley encouraged the community to keep in mind that a lot of workers are working hard.
"We're not the only ones who deal with the serious stuff," he said. "Doctors, nurses, social workers - there are a lot of people who do the tough work to keep this world turning."