First Responder Wellness Podcast – A Buffet of Options with Todd Gyure
Tue, Sep 05, 2023 9:24AM • 1:11:20
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
first responder, years, wellness, nami, people, peer support, officers, training, thinking, overwatch, staff, chief, big, outcomes, agency, hours, north texas, officer, todd, law enforcement
SPEAKERS
Todd Gyure, Conrad Weaver

Conrad Weaver 00:02
Welcome to Episode One of the first responder wellness podcast The show where we talk about wellness, mental health and leadership and what it takes to have a wellness culture within your organization. My name is Conrad Weaver. And while I’m not a first responder, I’ve worked with first responders from all across the country for my documentary film PTSD 911. And I’m really excited about the launch of this new show. And I want to let you know that you may hear earlier episodes that they start with a different title or show name. And well you found the right show, we’ve simply changed the title, the name of the show, and going forward will only refer to the show as the first responder wellness podcast. I felt that earlier episodes were so important, and I want to keep them there and available for you to have access to. Well, today on the show. We have Todd Jerry, if you’ve seen the PTSD 911 film, you’ll recognize Todd, he makes a brief appearance in the film and it talks about the wellness unit at garland police department and he also served as an associate producer on the PTSD 911 documentary, Todd has worked at the garland Police Department in Garland Texas for the past 21 years. With the majority of that time spent on street patrol. He is currently assigned to the wellness unit at the garland PD and for the for the past 11 years. Todd has also been a member of the SWAT team as a hostage negotiator. Todd is passionate about all things brain health for both citizens he serves and the law enforcement community. During his time with garland PD Todd has earned numerous awards and commendations including the fops Officer of the Year. Garland Police Department’s 2019 unit of the year for his work in the mental health unit, police commendation bar, victorious conduct bar to lifesaving bars and several officer of the month certificates. I’m so glad to have him on this inaugural show. I consider him a good friend and thankful for his work and Officer wellness. Hey, if you’d like this podcast and think others would too, please subscribe, and then share it, share it with your community and let them know that this podcast is available. And if you would like to watch the video of these interviews, check out our Patreon page. That’s the only place where you’ll find the video. It enables us to be able to support what we’re doing financially, for a small monthly donation, you can have access to the video, and you’ll get access to other amazing content as we produce it. And it really helps support the show and helps us continue to do what we need to do with this program and other programs that we have in production. Thanks for supporting the show. And now here’s my interview with Todd Gyure.

Conrad Weaver 02:43
Todd Gyure, welcome to the first responder wellness podcast. This is our inaugural episode of this new podcast. Thank you for being willing to come on. And share a little bit about your what you’re doing.

Todd Gyure 02:58
Thanks a lot for having me. It’s pretty exciting to be on here on your inaugural podcast. There’s so many good potential guests, I know you’re going to be have come on. So I’m really honored to be here with you today, doing this important work with you. Well, I want to first of all say thank you for for reaching out to me recently. And as we lost Nicole was part of a big part of our documentary that you were a part of. And I know you were one of the first people who reached out to me to see if I’m okay. And I want to say thank you for that. Thank you for your care and concern. And I know it was a heartbreaking loss for all of us and devastating to to the family into myself personally and I know to you as well. So thank you for for your care.

Todd Gyure 03:43
Definitely Conrad, I appreciate the same thing from you and informality and many other people that are in working in this circle either from the film PTSD now online or from outside with my other first responder wellness contacts, they were doing that same thing for me. We’ve talked before about how important a call was to all of us how important she is to her family and to me to society in general. To include you know, in particular, the communications professionals that she was such a big part of it was a big part of even after she left that profession. And it’s really hard to accept you know that Nicole is gone. It’s really really hard to accept. It’ll just be a process to go through the man Yeah, it’s heartbreaking doesn’t cover it.

Conrad Weaver 04:33
Yeah. Well, you know, like I told her family you know, I just thank them for allowing us to be a part of her life in a small way and that her Her story is not gonna go away or story is here forever and and her life and her story has impacted so many people. I’ve had people from all over the country reach out to me, you know, tell me how her story has impacted them and That’s the great thing about a film like this, it’ll carry that legacy forward as people see this film and see her story and be inspired by it and motivated to do to do well for themselves. And so I think that’s the legacy she leaves behind is that, you know, her story is motivating and inspiring lots of people. So we can take, take, take comfort in that.

Todd Gyure 05:23
I definitely hear that and really agree with that. Nicole, besides just as massive, massive innovator, an agent of change in this field, it’s so highly stigmatized. And like, you know, I think, you know, stigma is one of the biggest obstacles for first responders to get over to accept this kind of wellness programming and training. Nicole was such an agent of change to that. But even more than that she was, she was such a friendly, caring person. Like when we were in Beloit, Wisconsin, the and Becky was able to spend some time with her just as three, we were at a coffee house. And just like right away, it was like we were old friends. We’d never been I’ve never been to Maryland. So when she was talking about moving there, we were talking about oh, well, now we can go to Maryland, because it’s the main

Conrad Weaver 06:16
domain name.

Todd Gyure 06:19
We go to Maine, because it’s always cool to have a local guy, you know, or whatever, when you’re gonna be going to a new location. So we’re already we’re talking about that like thinking about, you know, either later this year in the spring. And that’s just like the type of infectious friendly caring and genuine personality that Nicole had, that really drew you to her, especially when you were seeing and she would share, she was a real good open book. And it really want to inspire you to do the same thing rather than holding everything close to your vest. So she would share challenges, and then things she’s done to progress and even overcome those just a really infectious person to be around. It’s probably one of the things that makes it so much more challenging to deal with that she’s not here with this anymore. Is that how you could see how what a high value she was? What a great person.

Conrad Weaver 07:16
Yeah, absolutely. And we’ll, we’ll miss her, you deeply and and miss that infectious laugh. And since the humor that she had, so yeah. And just the inspiration that she has to all of us. And I want to ask you, you’re taught how to you’ve been involved in mental health and law enforcement for quite some time, you know, what was your journey to there to that place where you’re doing what you’re doing today?

Todd Gyure 07:41
That’s a big question, Conrad.

Conrad Weaver 07:44
Well, let’s just start with that. Start with this. You know, how long have you been in law enforcement? You know, what do you work with? And what do you do?

Todd Gyure 07:51
So I just passed my 21st. year, July of this year, and I worked for the girl and police department. So I’m in Garland, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, we actually border part of Dallas. And after 16 and a half years working in our patrol unit with a bunch of high volume, call load everyday real busy, busy city. For about the last four and a half years, I’m in our brand new Wellness unit. So the wellness unit at garland PD we have we basically split three functions. We work a lot with our residents, when anytime their medical condition intersects with law enforcement, we work those cases like an investigator, we want to partner with that patient and with their family. And we’re trying to connect them to really a more appropriate resource for them. When they only they tell me all the time, all I knew to call was 911. So we want to change that outcome we’re always looking for a better improved outcome is one of our main goals for the patient and their family. And then we work in train all of our officers in anything crisis intervention, training wise. So we’re training these officers that their main skill set is to suppress crime and the fear of crime. We’re training them to better flip the switch when they’re talking to someone with a brain health, medical condition. And they can recognize that and then they can start speaking to that person way, but we ended up way higher level way more empathetic listening can really help bring things back down, no calm level. And then our third main project, an area that we focus on in the wellness Unit here at garland PD is our staffs wellness, we were really looking to find a whole buffet of options. So we don’t want to just check one box and say that we’ve got this great EAP which we actually do have a good EAP we’ve partnered with them and made some big advances for our staff and firefighters in the last three years. But we don’t want to say that’s it. We want to give a buffet of options. So then this staff member can pick and choose what’s best for them by geography He, what’s best for them by what they like, like maybe they don’t like equine therapy, but they do like being out on the water and kayaking. So we want to have a buffet of options. So you hear me say that all the time, I’ve worked with you long enough to remember you say all the time, I probably make people hungry thinking about them. But we wanted to have that. So we that’s mainly the three prongs that we work on here.

Conrad Weaver 10:21
So when you started working with, you know, training officers to, to kind of flip the switch, as you said, and deal with, you know, mental health cases in a different way. What kind of results did you have from that?

Todd Gyure 10:34
Now, I think the results have been really, really measurable where we got to see right away that use of force went down. Because the officers arrived on that call, they were able to go through like the checkboxes in their head and realize that, hey, they’re there, this isn’t a criminal activity, this is a medical condition. So then I’m gonna reset how I’m going to speak because I’m not speaking to someone that like they just robbed a bank or just assaulted somebody or just did a hit run or whatever. And I’m going to speak to them in a much calmer way, I’m going to use a lot more time on my side. And then right away, you can see less use of force, you can see less complaints coming to the station. And in general, you can just see a better relationship with the community. Because like what I said before, we’re just always looking for improved or better outcomes. So really, those were the main things that I saw. And then like, I even get feedback from the officers that you know, this is awesome, because they get to a situation that seems really, really vulnerable, volatile. And then they learn that hey, saying calm down doesn’t help when someone’s in a crisis mode. But when you do say something, that seems simple, but it’s not how society teaches us like, hey, Conrad, it’s okay to be upset. Like, in this kind of situation, what I heard what you saying anyone would feel that way, I really shocks people, the residents that we’re serving, because we don’t listen to each other in that level, not naturally, it really shocks the person and helps get the situation back to calm where when you don’t have that skill set, because you’re one skill is that your main thing you’re focused on is suppressing crime and the fear of crime. When you don’t have that, then things you say or do could actually continue the crisis situation or even escalated. So that’s some of the benefits that we’ve seen from that kind of training.

Conrad Weaver 12:31
And you probably also get a residual benefit from that is that the officers aren’t impacted as well on their in their own selves?

Todd Gyure 12:38
Oh, yeah, definitely. Any time you go to a call for service, and if you can do things with your body language, with your words, with your eye contact with remembering to ask someone’s name and using their name for that extra connectivity, and the situation gets calm a lot faster, then there’s so much less of an emotional impact on you, because they’re not staying in this crisis mode so long, and you’re not, you know, staying trying to be on edge as much and all because in the situation comes back to calm. And you’re not dumping that cortisol and adrenaline and all that other stuff into your system that you don’t have any control over, it’s going to happen whether you want it to or not. So all of that gets reduced. So yeah, definitely. That’s an important point, Conrad is that the benefit to the officers well being and then how it trickles down to the community, to their family, to every aspect of their life? Really?

Conrad Weaver 13:36
Was it a challenge to get officers to buy into this idea?

Todd Gyure 13:42
I think, and human beings, you know, are we we are creatures of habit, just like every animal is. So once you start trying to introduce something that’s out of people’s normal, especially part of their routine, there’s definitely going to be challenges to it. So it doesn’t really matter if it’s different equipment, different gear. I mean, there were officers that were against in my 21 years, wearing their body armor every day wearing their ballistic vest every day, they were they didn’t think they needed that or it was too hot or whatever. So there was some to that initially. And it was just something like we do with any other training or new ideas or innovations. We just had to like work through that and meet the person where they’re at, meet the officers where they’re at, and then show them through training examples and real world examples with video footage like body cam footage of it actually working. So then you start getting the buy in, rather than just like you or me telling someone, hey, this is what you should do. In training we really show the different outcomes that you can get from this skill set. And I have a lot of CIT training or really all of it I talk about that it’s an officer safety school, because it is because any action that I can take it doesn’t have to be quipment equipment, any thing I can say or do any action I can take, that helps calm a situation helps get people back to their normal faster. I just increased my safety. So it’s really, really quality training that is really an officer safety school and then a community safety school too.

Conrad Weaver 15:16
And how did you put them develop the path of Officer wellness and in providing those resources and How was that received within your within the agency.

Todd Gyure 15:31
So for me personally, when I got on our SWAT team as a hostage negotiator about 11 years ago, I then got the opportunity to go to any multitude of FBI, state agency, DPS, local agencies, to learn how to empathetically listen at a much higher level, to make a connection with someone that’s in a crisis or even a suicidal crisis. And listen to them primarily in an impactful way. But also pick words and say things that are very impactful and meaningful to try and get the person from that level of a crisis back to their normal when I’m not going to be able to use any threats or force. So when I started getting that skill set, and it started getting higher and higher and higher, and I started seeing Wow, man is really, really works like this has a huge impact for our staff for the community. It got me more and more interested in everything that was connected to your brain health, wellness and communication. So I started looking for some of that training on my own. But now about seven or eight years ago, because the years just clicked by now. At the time, our Assistant Chief Brian, who’s now the chief of police for the last four and a half years, five years, he got interested in officer wellness versus found a wellness. He read Dr. Gill Martin’s book offs, or motional survival for first responders. He read that book, he wanted to look into that more he got him to come out. And we went to some of the training with Dr. Gilmartin. In Chief and learned about critical incident stress management. And he brought that training in so that was about eight years ago. So once I took some of that I really started searching for more and more and more. But some of it that I talk about a lot is was very, very selfish. For me, I was looking for benefits for me, because 21 years ago, I didn’t receive any training, how to mitigate risks to my emotional or my brain health. I received none in our academy for that I received training to mitigate this myriad of other risks to my safety and my well being, but none for that. And so I said earlier that I was in patrol six and a half years, and we’re a high call load department. So I was getting exposed to traumatic event after a traumatic event after a traumatic event, a lot of them were what’s considered a little T. And those were adding up and they were changing my brain’s function, they were changing how I viewed the world, little bit by little bit by little bit. And when I started recognizing that I wanted to know what I can do about that I wanted to not just accept that is that inevitable outcome of this line of work, I didn’t want to accept that like part of this line of work is the destruction of your personal life or repeated failed marriages or anything like that. So some of it was really selfishly, I was looking for benefits for me. But then I didn’t want to just keep that to myself. And like if I’m working with the community, and I’m trying to help them have better brain health and better outcomes, it’s very unnatural for me to ignore our staff. Like, I couldn’t do that I couldn’t just focus on the community. And I see these innovations, and I see better outcomes for him. But then I wouldn’t make time for our staff. So it was a multitude of things, a lot of inspiration from Chief Brian, Captain McCauley in a myriad of other peers for IT leaders here. And in some of it was real selfish, like I was looking for benefits and management was

Conrad Weaver 19:20
it in you that you were able to look at yourself, almost in a third person wait and say, hey, you know, Todd, this this is a problem. I need to work on this. What was it that that kind of caused you to do that?

Todd Gyure 19:35
It would be after I was exposed to some real real traumatic events. And then I’d go home that night and I wouldn’t sleep very good. And go to work the next day on very little sleep I’m in a minimum staff unit. So when a minimum staffing unit, you can feel a lot of responsibility to your co workers. So It can kind of prevent you from like taking a sick day that you should take or trying to take a vacation day or something. Because then you know, they’re going to have to mandatory someone else to work or they’re going to scramble trying to get someone else to work overtime or sign. So when things like that were occurring to me on different calls, I wouldn’t sleep or I’d be thinking about it for the rest of the shift for 10 hours. I didn’t know what to do. And early on in my career, when I was exposed to a particular traumatic event. And I couldn’t sleep for several days, I literally had thoughts in my head that maybe I’m not cut out for this kind of work, like, maybe I’m cracking up. And since I didn’t have any training, I didn’t know any difference. Like, I just got lucky that my brain because the brain is real resilient, like a lot of parts of your body. So since I was already doing some things to mitigate, like always doing cardio exercise, and normally sleeping, good, and socializing, I just got back to my normal, but it probably took a lot longer than without any recognition, than if I would have had to train it. So when that was occurring to me again and again and again. And I’d get a little bit information from a few of my co workers that maybe something similar was happening to them, or I saw or heard them saying, maybe they were drinking every night of the week or something that started getting me thinking that now we mitigate risks, all these different risks. And we traded at a really high level for all these different skill sets. And so it really got me thinking that there’s got to be something I can do about this, like, I don’t just have to go this alone, and hope for the best.

Conrad Weaver 21:42
And so when you guys started this program, you started this really a culture, you kind of had a culture shift within your agency, kind of, you know, I know, we talked about that in our film, how it’s more than just a program that where you check the box, and I’ve done this, I’ve done that, but it’s really a cultural shift within an agency. I mean, what were the challenges to have that cultural shift within your agency.

Todd Gyure 22:08
So one of the big challenges right away when I’m speaking to other operators like me, that are in the first responder wellness area, and they’re actually doing this work and trying to innovate, they’re not just administering someone else’s work. One of the big ones I talked about is you’ve got to be very realistic of how slow the progress may be. So you can’t initiate something like this, that’s not been the norm for the last 100 years of policing. And then think that in a few months, or even one year, you’re going to have this huge results. And everyone’s going to be participating, you’re going to have big numbers, this statistically look impressive, you really have to think that this is something that like as a five year you’re going to be looking at and thinking five years from this launch date, or we’re really pushing it organized wise, and we’ve done all the back work, we know we’ve got quality resources lined up, we know we have ones that are quality, no cost, we know we have ones that are in network with the insurance or they’re in network with our EAP that then you’re after you’ve done all that hard work to begin with, it may take years before you launch, you need to you’re thinking in five years from now, this is where we want to be we want 30% or 50% participation. But it’s really something that you can if you think you’re gonna get these awesome participation numbers and huge statistics that look really impressive on a piece of paper or spreadsheet, you’ll be disappointed, I’d say it’s a much slower, gradual process. It’s like one relationship at a time, like literally one staff member you get to participate in one of the traditional or non traditional first responder programs we have, it’s one at a time with word of mouth, that helps grow it and grow it and grow it. It’s not a poster that I can put up or a video that we shoot of the chief talking, Oh, those are small parts. But the real change is the individual staff member, it’s willing to give it a try. And then they start talking about it to the other staff members. And that’s how it starts to grow and grow and grow where you get a lot more participation from your

Conrad Weaver 24:25
what do you say then to those maybe city leaders who help fund programs like this to say, Hey, why isn’t this working? Right? Why isn’t this Why isn’t this happening now? What do you say to them?

Todd Gyure 24:35
So part of it is that is trying to set the expectation that this is not an overnight This is not a few months thing this is like set, you’re where you want to be five years from now what your goal is to work towards. That’s that’s really a big part of it. And then the other part is, man, a lot of people are not willing to openly communicate about anything that has to do with their medical condition. So staff members here are gone, please for me, they take medications for different ailments, maybe it’s high blood pressure, maybe it’s something else. And they don’t just talk about that. I don’t broadcast that. So that’s another thing that you have to talk to police, law enforcement leadership and city leadership is, this isn’t something that a lot of people are going to broadcast how awesome it was for them or their family. So we have to really understand and accept that some of these great outcomes, we aren’t going to get to know about like, literally, we’re not going to get to know that we save someone’s marriage, maybe we even saved or improved their life, we’re not going to get to know about the majority of those because people keep their medicals situations, regardless, if it’s their sometimes their knee or their heart or their brain, they keep that to themselves, so you don’t get to know. So you have to set that to that some of this is kind of shadowy, whoo, going on in the background, and you’re not gonna get to see it in a stat sheet, we’ll get to see that we’ve got good outcomes, though, five years in and stuff when we see things like use of force is going down, we see use a sick time going down, we see our numbers going up when we hold like a lunch and learn first responder wellness training, and there’s more staff there. When we see more people wanting to participate and be a peer facilitator on our internal team, some of those we can like gauge it that way. And it’s like, to me, it’s kind of like how you can gauge use of any other innovation in policing, when you see more and more of your staff using it because it works like even something silly, like the newest boots come out. And they’re actually really comfortable and your feet hurt less after a 12 hour shift. And then people start using and using but now you know those work just because you see him on everyone’s feet. Most people aren’t running around talking about my whatever brand new boots, you just start seeing that equipment showing up. But it’s definitely something that when people are used to be able to see something in a spreadsheet, see some kind of statistic showing like this huge success thing. If that’s what you’re used to, we have to have those important conversations. So this is totally different. This is health care, people don’t broadcast it, you’re not gonna get those same visible results that you might

Conrad Weaver 27:27
get, do you have like officers who then perhaps somebody went to equine therapy, and were like, Man, this is really, this really helped me and now they have a friend that they work with. And they’re like, Hey, you should go check out this equine thing. You know, and maybe leadership doesn’t even know that, that they’re sharing that with each other.

Todd Gyure 27:45
Yes, that is like the main thing that’s going on. And even sometimes, I don’t even know that, because people are going about their business with their support system and their co workers and their friend network. And they’re sharing this information, and they’re consuming this programming and this training, we don’t even know about it. So a lot of that goes on to and that’s part of what I think is meant by you know, it’s a culture shift at your agency is things like that are being utilized as now the norm. And we’re not even hearing about it, because it’s just normal activity. Like it’s just like you don’t hear about people growing PD or using equipment like their body camera or their ballistic vest. It’s just the norm, like it’s not a conversation piece. It’s just part of your normal daily functioning.

Conrad Weaver 28:41
I know when I was there doing an interview with with Chief Brian, I was really impressed when he said that, you know, we treat a brain injury, exactly the same as a knee injury. It’s the same thing to us. Can you can you elaborate on that what that what that means, you know, realistically.

Todd Gyure 28:59
So what I have seen with that, in practice, is that the golf Police Department, if you receive some kind of injury to a physical part of your body, instead of having to burn your sick time, or any other of your lead banks for that. Chief Brian and the command staff will find another job for you to do at the PD. If you’re a part of a unit that’s considered high impact. So if you’re in patrol, and you injure your bicep to your knee or your low back, instead of me having to start burning my sick time banks or my other leaf banks. Chief Brian will find a job for me in the police department while I’m going through the recovery process. And like I that I was a recipient of that when I had an injury to a disc in my low back. And I couldn’t link it even directly to work. So it wasn’t like I said it happened at work. I think it was just wear and tear. But that didn’t change that O’Brien found a job for me for like six months, as I went through the recovery process before I could go back to my high impact job, which was in patrol. And so I didn’t use any sick time. So I have like 2000 and some hours of sick time now. Because I didn’t have to use it for something like that. So then I’ve seen chief, Brian do the same thing for people that are having some kind of emotional problem, something that’s affecting their brain health. And he’s done the same thing for them. I didn’t see any difference. Some of the members here some of our staff that is benefited from that programming from Chief Brian, they said that it was just like when they had surgery on their knee, like they didn’t have to show any different documentation, they didn’t have any different feeling about it, it felt very much the same.

Conrad Weaver 30:50
I think that’s what it should be. Right. I mean, that’s not the norm among law enforcement, for sure around the country.

Todd Gyure 30:59
I definitely agree with that, Conrad, I think that’s what it should be. And I think it’s should be that way, because you’re just trying to take care of your most valuable assets at the highest level possible. And so if I was a little time in or say, I’m the police leader, and I already have 50 fires I’m looking at and I don’t have time for it. So I’m going to trust someone that I’m going to delegate to that puts the time in and figures out they like this is a real thing. That occupational trauma is real for first responders. And that it doesn’t need to be like a huge event, it can be many small ones that just stack up and kind of like how you wear out your knee or just in your low back from little small wear and tear wear and tear wear and tear takes 20 years or something to do it, you realize that this is a real thing. It’s not not made up. It’s not people trying to game the system. Once you realize that, like Jeff Bryan said in the film, like, I think police leadership, city leadership, all of us like we have an obligation to do something about that, to mitigate that, that risk and help the person get back to their normal. So they can produce at a high level, a really good product to the residents that we serve. So that should just be like part to me of a police leader or city. That should just be like the expectation, like it should just be just like taking care of any other physical problem that comes up or injury that comes up.

Conrad Weaver 32:27
You know, unfortunately, so many agencies, law enforcement included, fire, you know, other types of agencies, and people I’ve talked to recently, on our bike tour, I met somebody that said, we’re just waiting for the chief to retire so we can start some stuff. What do you do when you have a leader that doesn’t really buy into it?

Todd Gyure 32:49
Man, that’s really difficult to to make any innovation or change. Especially if the CEO, you know, like the chief or the sheriff are the FBI Special Agent in Charge, if they’re against it, they don’t want to make any time for it. They’re too busy or whatever for it. That’ll be really hard to make anything that’s going to be widespread agency wise. So what I would tell other people that I use the term operator, someone that’s going to do the work, that doesn’t mean that you can’t do some things that you can’t try and look for some programming out there. You can’t look for some options that are in network for your insurance. You can’t look for some options that are accredited with whoever your third party party provider is for EAP. So say Chief Brian was against this, like he thinks this is made up hocus pocus and he’s not interested. He’s not tough guy enough for him or whatever. That wouldn’t stop me from like finding out that EAP in the city of garland, the third party provider is this company called Aetna. And it wouldn’t stop me from looking around at Area therapists that I find out or first responder competent, and asking them Hey, are you credentialed with Aetna? And then they tell me yes. And I’m like, Well, you’re a part of our EAP. And then I just start educating our staff. I just start talking about it with these one on one conversations. I start maybe through our police sociation where all of our personal emails are part of the communication. So that’s not under police leaders purview. I started asking them as a partner to blast this information out. That would be outside of our normal chain of command or police leadership. They may not be on board with us yet for this, and I think then it might end up adding a different viewpoint for the police, law enforcement versus minor leadership. If they would start learning more and seeing we’re getting some results if they started seeing staffs not calling in sick as much or People seem to be showing up to work and performing at a higher level. And part of that is because they’re healthier and happier, that might be a way to get to yes, from police leadership, besides just having to wait for somebody to retire like that. It seems so silly and really sad to be in that kind of situation. And that doesn’t make any sense in 2023, like, but it made sense, you know, in 1950, and when we didn’t know much about the human brain, and we were doing frontal lobotomies or whatever, even up into the 60s. But now, that doesn’t make any sense. So I would really, I take a lot of inspiration for Chief Brian, because he actually said this in your film, too, that the police leader can only do so much. He believes that passionate officers that are doing the work that I call operators that they can push this way farther than the police leader can. And I think that was, you know, showed like his humanity or his, how he’s humble, because a lot of times you are the CEO, or you’re the president, or something that can get your ego going, you can think you’re a smartest person in every room. And you can think that everything starts or stops with you. And when Dave Bryan says something like that, that gives me if I needed any more motivation, you know, that gives me all the motivation, because he just said that operators like myself are gonna push this way farther than just he can alone by him putting out an email or him talking about how great this is.

Conrad Weaver 36:33
So in your work, when you were looking for local resources and organizations that you can work with, I know you discovered Nami, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, your local chapter there in Texas, tell me about that relationship and what’s been developing kind of behind the scenes.

Todd Gyure 36:50
Yeah, I appreciate you asking that. It’s been a really interesting story. So you’ve heard me talk a lot about growing Police Department. And we’re not unlike a lot of other police departments that are around our size, you know, you’re around 400 officers or bigger, you have some kind of internal program for your staffs wellness. And a lot of times, that may be where it ends, like you got your internal program. And sometimes agencies can kind of look inwards, we trained at a better level or a higher level where the best place ever whatever for first responders, so you kind of look inwards. And you may forget about partnering or not be as motivated to partner with outside resources and programs. So I was involved in another critical incident. And it happened to be the death of a three year old, there was nothing nefarious about it, it was probably just a bad reaction to some medicine at bedtime or something. But it was super sad to be arriving, and one of the first officers arriving on the scene and there was nothing you can do. A three year old had been passed for many, many hours, I could tell by just looking. And then the mother’s agony was like the lot just off the charts, like probably something I’d never seen before. And then the whole time as the police officer, you’re just spectating. Even the paramedics that show up from our fire department, like there’s nothing you can do. You can’t even consult a person because you’re a stranger, like you’re, you’re just a spectator, and you’re just going to be there to document what’s going on. So we had a critical incident stress management meeting, this was probably seven years ago or something. There were 15 officers in the group are so think there were some people from communications in there, if I remember, right. And as I was sitting around there looking around at my coworkers, and any one of them can take a standardized test, because we’re civil service and be my supervisor, six months from now or whatever. There I was just like, in that moment, I was looking around the room as i There’s no way I’m sharing with these co workers, what I’m going through, like, and I don’t remember really anyone else. Sharon, I remember a lot of I’m good. I’m good. And we were one officer said something pretty impactful. Like because we don’t normally do this like that. He went and got a card, like a sympathy card or whatever, and put it in their mailbox, like within a couple of days, because we’ve met within probably about 48 hours. So that was like that got my attention. Like I was like, oh, so it really did impact him because we don’t run around buying cards for residents and calls and putting them in their mailbox. But I wasn’t going to use that I wasn’t going to ventilate it just wasn’t for me. These are my co workers that can be my boss. Are they going to think about what I said and wonder if I’m capable of this kind of work from reliable? So I started thinking man, maybe I wouldn’t talk to an officer from another police department. So I started looking around trying to locate something like that and I couldn’t locate anything like that. And I was thinking, I might talk to another police tomorrow from another department because I know they speak my language. I know they’re gonna have some similar experiences. But I know that I’ll work where I work. And they might not even know my full name, if I don’t give it to them. So that, you know, the feeling of maybe the anonymity and being confident that that’s not going to leak around the station or anything. Would it be much higher for me, so I couldn’t find it. So I knew about Nami, North Texas, and I’d been given out their information to resonance I serve, because if you don’t know anything about NAMI, National or the 600, and some affiliates across the country, they don’t do anything clinical. So they don’t have any therapists. They don’t have any psychologists, they don’t have any psychiatrists, everything they do is peer led. So with lived experience, so I was promoting them to residents I serve, especially ones that I’m running into, and they can’t afford health care in the United States of America, or, and or they don’t have any insurance. So I would promote these peer led these family to family with lived experience programs with no cost, I always felt really good saying there’s no cost for these programs. And you’ll be paired with someone with lived experience like, so if you go in there. And it’s because of depression, either for you or your family, or maybe schizophrenia, or something, the eight week training courses you’re gonna go to, it’s going to be someone with lived experience. And now they’re on a path to their recovery. And they’re going to be the ones that are going to be helping to lead the programming, and you’re going to be around other peers that are in similar situations with you. It sounded awesome. And I was promoting this to residents. So when I was thinking about, man, I don’t want to I know a lot of people is always start their own nonprofit. And some of that I guess I understand why a lot of the times, I think it’s kind of a rushed decision to start your own nonprofit, before taking a second to look around and see is there already something out there established, that I could do some research for and see if they’re interested in partnering with me. So I don’t have to add my nonprofit to the saturated field, we’re all fighting over the limited philanthropy dollars. So that’s what I did. I went to Nami, North Texas, and they didn’t do anything with law enforcement and first responders that I was aware of, and I didn’t bring, I didn’t bring a PowerPoint, when I look back on in 2019, it’s kind of makes me laugh that I didn’t even bring like a three slide PowerPoint. I didn’t bring like a handout or anything. I just had an informal meeting with the executive director at the time, her name was Marsha Rogers. And I’d already pre thought in my head that they’re going to say, sounds interesting, but that’s not our target population. And our 40 Hour Work Week is full, because we’re actually working 50 hours a week before the hours of hey, thanks for no thanks. And instead, she was interested, she thought he could fit the NAMI mission. Non especially at Nami, North Texas, that affiliate, they already had a close working relationship with law enforcement on the CIT side. So she was interested. And she ended up fine taking a better opportunity with another company. So then I thought, wow, oh, no, brand new Executive Director. This is over or really, really delayed, and this is still 2019. So I, actually I was on the board of directors now at Nami, North Texas, when I first went, I wasn’t, and then I got the opportunity to be, throw my hat in the ring get voted on. So now I’m on the board of directors. And I think I gave the new executive director, Dr. Trenton, all of two weeks before I was like, Hey, I’ve got this idea for this really massive program. And it’s gonna take a ton of time and work to try and innovate and do. What do you think is literally been there two weeks. So she could have said, man, come back to me in like 2020 or 2021. You know, we’ll look at it then once I’ve got my feet going with this job. But she was interested also, I didn’t know it at the time as much, but she’s has a lot of work in academia. Her PhD is in curriculum and education. So and it’s a long story, but we started working, and then COVID happened and a bunch of other stuff happened and we had a bunch of reasons to fail or to shelve the program. I’m looking at it later and it would have been very, very reasonable to have done that. But that wasn’t in the plans for Dr. Trenton and her team and the team that we built together and we kept grinding kept grinding. We ended up deciding that us building the curriculum on our own was too much of an ask because everyone’s got a full time job and they’ve also got a life they want to lead. So we will Without a request for proposal, we ended up going with this nonprofit called the meadows Mental Health Policy Institute. They helped us build the curriculum with their team. Some really, really, really, really interesting minds there between Tempe Sherelle. And Shawn Hanna, we built a really good curriculum. And then somewhere right around that time, Nami national in DC, launched a frontline wellness initiative. I think COVID-19 really highlighted for NAMI national, the massive stress on our first responders and our frontline health care workers. And this incredible asked the society halves of them, but a lot of times doesn’t participate in helping to keep them healthy, happy, and performing at a really high level. A lot of times society, I think it’s just because a lack of opportunity to learn. They just think we miracle ourself to wellness, or, you know, we signed up for that, like just what you signed up for this job or whatever. So and I mean, national gotten interested and they launched their frontline wellness initiative about a year and a half ago, it happened chance of Dr. Trenton talking to,

Todd Gyure 46:11
to Nami national, she got told, Hey, you, we were thinking about doing something like what you’re talking about, but you guys are already, like, got it going. So we want to help you out with funding, we want you to kind of beta test this program for us. So we got one, as soon as we got Nami national support, it was full speed ahead. And that’s where we were able to launch about a year ago, March. Here in North Texas launched the Overwatch peer support program. It’s a regional peer support program that is not intended to replace any agency’s internal programming, it’s not trying to say that your programming internally is deficient. It’s back to that buffet of options. If you already have an internal program, then we’re a buffet of options have a regional one here in North Texas that your staff can utilize for their wellness, and we’re able to, since we don’t have like a state law, or a certain grant with stipulations, we’re able to like include everyone at the PD. So if you’re in communications, if you’re in forensics, if you’re in any of the divisions where you’re exposed to trauma, occupationally, you can utilize though watch peer support. So we’ve had members from all those branches I just said training with us. We’ve been able to also since we don’t have a state law, it’s funding us or a grant with stipulations that we have to adhere to, we can pivot when the population asks us to. So our initial idea was someone scans the QR code a first responder does. And then they get scheduled for the one on one peer support meeting that’s going to happen in your street clothes, and maybe a coffee house or maybe Nahmias office or just anywhere that the peer and peer facilitator peer leader decide on. We thought that’s what was going to be the main function. And since we’ve been able to pivot what we’re doing that, but we also can pivot and when a critical incident happens at a police department. So like, maybe say like, an injury to an officer or something happens where an officer is killed in the line of duty, or suicide or sign. Overwatch peer support can send a peer support team of five or six or whatever’s appropriate officers to that location, or maybe a communications or forensics person. And we can be a team there to even at a minimum reset the expectations for these officers. They’re like, this is how we’re taking care of the community. This is how we’re taking care of each other as an added resource. So we’ve utilized that team Overwatch for our support team here at garland PD. And I saw like the benefit and I saw some of the surprised looks on our staffs face when they saw that an officer from the colony was here to support us and officer from Dallas PD was ops training here to support us from Flower Mound PD. And the list goes on. Like I saw, like, oh, wow, this is what we do now.

Conrad Weaver 49:19
And that goes right back to what you experienced or you weren’t going to share within your own group. But you have now you have all these other people who are trained to come and provide the support.

Todd Gyure 49:32
That’s a key component comrade that it matches what I was imagining that I wished I would have had seven years ago. And the first responders most of them already are have a lot have a lot or some experience in some kind of peer support or critical stress management. So they already have some training. They’re not just this is the first thing Overwatch peer support. So we we access people like that or hostage negotiators that They go through our 16 hour training, very similar time stamp that you see for like IFF does, it’s proven that you can take some of that already has some skills, and in just 16 hours, you can train them in your system. And then we’ll get them eight hours more continuing education multiple times a year to stay at the top of their game, or learn about new innovations. But they trained with us for 16 hours and those of the Overwatch peer support operators or peer leaders that go out and Nami national, is really, really motivated. And so this program, we beta tested for law enforcement, since that’s in my wheelhouse. But there were modifying the curriculum with NAMI, National or fire, EMS, and frontline health care. And all that is in motion right now. So all of those populations will be included. Eventually, it’s 600 of the affiliates 600, and some affiliates, nationwide. So I get the opportunity like this comrade to talk to people like you that are leaders in first responder, wellness, one of the things I really like to talk about every time is just because you don’t have a fancy title. You’re not like the president of something, you’re not the CEO. You’re not the chief, you’re not the sheriff, you’re not the FBI, Special Agent in Charge. Don’t let that dissuade you from going and talking about a good idea. You have something that you’ve talked to other colleagues because wasn’t just me thinking I need to find peer support somewhere else. There were partners of mine and other agencies. Don’t let that dissuade you from like running with an idea. And like back to your point, like, Gee, Brian could have been against Overwatch peer support, he could have said, Hey, Todd, I think our internal program is all we need. But that didn’t have to dissuade me from trying to partner with a impactful organization in the community like NAMI, National Nami, North Texas that wouldn’t had to dissuade me. I was fortunate that Chief Brian, like we’ve already established when I told him about a challenge one time that I ran into from an outside source about Overwatch peer support in the early days and 2019. I think I mugged him in the hallway. And I saw him and I started complaining about this meeting and what this person said and yada, yada. And he was like, Whoa, Todd, just keep doing what you’re doing. Just keep working at that keep doing what you’re doing. So I was really fortunate that his full support doing it. But back to my point, you know, if you’re just an officer or you’re just a deputy, these titles, we put on herself a qualifier just, I don’t let that dissuade you. You’ve got some good ideas for first responder wellness, look for partnerships in the community. Look for partnerships at your agency, and like keep pushing, keep pushing. Because I’m sometimes like I was telling, Christina bought the you know, she’s a supporter of PTSD, Nam Oman at Nami national. I was just telling her recently on a conversation that man sometimes I can’t get my head around that. We pulled this off, like, especially like when I go back and think I showed up at Nami, North Texas. And I didn’t even bring like a five slide PowerPoint. Just like because I think it was really because I thought the answer was going to be no, because I just wouldn’t had a conversation. And maybe that was better than my PowerPoint. Maybe just a one on one conversation might have been better. But I just pinch myself. Sometimes I like, man, we as a team, we were capable of this.

Conrad Weaver 53:40
So so we’re recording this in mid August. And we’re looking forward to a launch of this program nationally. Shortly this this podcast comes out on September 6. So how can people get connected to this? How can they learn more? How can they be involved with this?

Todd Gyure 54:01
Now the timing is going to be uncanny because somewhere right around that time I’m expecting Nami national to be announcing that this the law enforcement side of Overwatch peer support is going to be now available on their database for all of the NAMI affiliates to acquire the curriculum. It’s around 140 slide deck, and then a massive manual for the instructors that they’re going to have access to it and then the process will start of working with those affiliates to answer any questions and work on making connections if they don’t already have it with local law enforcement. So this the timing is really uncanny who might this might be the scoop of national on here on this on your podcast. You can ask access it really simply with just like a basic Google search. So like if you search Overwatch peer support, Nami North Texas you’ll find it if you go to the NAMI North Texas website You’ll find it there. Obviously, we’re on Facebook. So there’s an Overwatch peer support Facebook page. So you can see all the information at that location. But really just a simple Google search of what you see there in my title, Overwatch peer support, Nami, North Texas, it’s like one of the first if not the first hit, and you can see it, but you can find us on Facebook too. And we’re on Nakamise, regular Facebook, but there’s many avenues there that you can get information about it.

Conrad Weaver 55:30
Well, congratulations on on making this happen. I know it was a it was an idea. And that’s, that’s the amazing thing about the human spirit is you, you can have an idea and you can create something, and you can make it happen. So congratulations on that work. And it has been a lot of hard work for you and your team to pull this off. What gives you hope for first responder wellness.

Todd Gyure 55:53
Ah, so I think there’s several things that give me hope on that. And that’s the innovation that’s going on right now. Like, it’s a pretty new field. And so you’re at this exciting time where you can start innovating and trying different things and seeing which ones get you the results that you’re looking for the better outcomes that you’re looking for, for your staff and for their families and for the community. So I think a lot of that’s what what gives me hope is the on the innovation side that we were, we’re at this exciting time where we don’t have a roadmap to success, it’s been established for the last, you know, 20 3050 years. So we’re building that roadmap. So that gives me a lot of hope for the future that we’re in this exciting time, where it’s entrusted to us to do this work, and to figure out what’s actually going to work best, and what kind of options we want to have that are really, really high quality, that have really, really low barriers. And that we can work together on these kinds of teams. And we don’t only have to look inward at our agency and try and do all of this on our own. We can literally partner with other people out there, like that we’ve been talking about in this last hour, which also includes you, Conrad, because for how little I mean, you would think they’d like you were a police officer or firefighter at one time or someone a lot bunch of your family was or whatever. Because your motivation to press ahead and innovate and see what’s out there is really, really impressive. And when I try and like get my head around that, like this wasn’t really on your radar until you were making your previous film heroines grip. And you started seeing that like stuff that book really impacted you like was really changing the outcome of your day and your week, and whatever was just a Tuesday for these first responders like they acted like this was nothing like this is just a regular day at the office, whatever. So I think that gives me a lot of hope for the future that there are interested, really interesting and really, really innovative ideas out there with other first responders and people like you and Nami in the community. And they’re interested in innovating and getting better outcomes and seeing what works and then stopping what doesn’t work. And going on to the next idea. That gives me a lot of hope for the future like we are not stagnant. Like I mean, to me the biggest challenge when someone asked me what’s the biggest challenge is funding for some of these programs, I want to remove the barrier of high cost. So I don’t want to tell someone, hey, you got to spend $350 an hour to go see this really competent, first responder, innovative psychologist. So to me, that’s one of the biggest challenges. It’s not really here in North Texas, we our biggest challenge is not a shortage of really good first responder, wellness programming. Our biggest challenge is funding. Like if we don’t have the funding, getting our staff to YES to make that investment. Like in their wellness, I actually prioritize that as much as they do maybe their big house or a really a nice pickup truck or something like

Conrad Weaver 59:22
that. So what’s one thing as we wrap up here, what’s one thing that someone can do for their own personal self, maybe something that you do? Maybe on the daily or the weekly? What’s something that someone can start doing if they’re just kind of dabbling into this wellness culture?

Todd Gyure 59:41
Then it’s kind of like how we want a buffet of options. You want a buffet of options for yourself like so. I don’t want to just like say like I am a true believer. It’s really worked for me, that moving my body and some cardio, and it doesn’t have to be a marathon runner. or while I’m not listening to music, so then my thoughts shuffle and stuff at all, I’m doing that exercise for 30 minutes. That’s wildly impactful. But that’s just one part because you know, I’ve had injuries that prevent me from that. So then if I can’t do the one thing that really works for me, then that’s going to add some complications for me to maybe start not feeling like my normal or maybe some depression or something about that. So one I really, really liked, it’s so simple to do, there’s a bunch of different names like box breathing or tactical breathing, if you’re trying to appeal to this first responder or warfighter type audience, that’s really impactful, because much like I can’t stop adrenaline or cortisone from hitting me, I can’t just say no cortisone don’t don’t do that now, because you’re going to lower my ability to perform at a high level, just like I can’t stop that, I can’t stop the impact of flooding my system with that kind of breathing kind of deep breath through my nose where my stomach is sticking out big time, it’s not my chest, even it’s my stomach coming out. And I can hold that for four seconds. And then I can slowly let it come out of my mouth. And really, I only have to do that a few times, I can do that, while driving the squad to what sounds like a very stressful call, where I need to be at my best, I have to be at my absolute best. And it’s going to make me be at my best whether I want to stop it or not, the oxygen bloods going to hit me, and it’s gonna help get me arriving at my best absolute best. That’s when I really, really like once I learned that skill set. And I practice it every day as part of my routine multiple times a day, not just when I think I’m going to encounter a stressful situation. It’s been really, really impactful. And there’s many other skills like that, that are not super complicated. You don’t need other equipment or anything like that, to get some good results for you. And they happen whether you want them to or not.

Conrad Weaver 1:01:59
I mean, that’s so important that kind of shows the importance of, of being at your best because you can’t serve you can’t serve others at with your best if you come with an empty cup. If you come if you come depleted, you have to bring you have to take care of yourself in a in a wholesome manner, to be able to serve at your very best. And I

Todd Gyure 1:02:22
think that’s a big here we are at the last minute. So this whatever, but that’s a real important part of this whole conversation, especially when I’m talking to city leaders or residents that may not have a lot of experience in this area is that’s how we want. We’re doing jobs that are super, super important to the residents that we’re serving that call 911 and want this unknown professional to come and improve their outcome because they can’t do it on their own. And I think of any other profession, when I had surgery on a disc in my low back. And I tell this story all the time. I 12 years ago, I actually thought about my surgeon Dr. Barnett, I was hoping that that night that he had slept really good that he didn’t have any disagreements with his family or children. And my surgery wasn’t till one o’clock the next day. So I hoped that he had a really good breakfast and his routine was totally normal. I hoped he’d had a lunch. And when he was going to be coming to work for me. Because I couldn’t handle this problem. I had to dial 911 It was just a different 911 I was hoping he was showing up at the top of his game healthy, happy adjusted and he was going to deliver really good high quality service to me which which he did. But I think that’s for any profession. I think it just gets overlooked sometimes. When this profession, I think it just gets overlooked and people haven’t had the opportunity to really sit down like them the opportunity to see your film and really have the curtain not just a peek but yanked back. The curtain is yanked back by PTSD, number one, and you really get a window into like, Whoa, I didn’t know this and this isn’t okay, that I’m not participating as a citizen as a resident of whatever area. I’m not participating in the, the improvement of this or this the solution out there. I think it’s it’s something that’s really, really impactful of the film and really, really important to be part of this conversation.

Conrad Weaver 1:04:30
Yeah, just it just, is reminds me daily to, you know, your daily habits, you know, really end up being who you are. And so doing the little things every day matters. You know, doing that box breathing, that you describe matters, because that’s what makes who you are and that’s when you can bring your full awareness, your full self to a situation to be at your very best and I think that’s what we need. Eat from our first responders. So need from people like me, you know, you for whatever I do, you know, whenever I do a podcast, you know, I want to make sure I’m at my best game. So that I can, I can ask the best questions and so we can have a meaningful conversation. And so I work to develop that skill set. And I think it takes that daily practice for whatever work you’re doing, to, to bring your very best, because the other night I was on another, on another show, we talked about, you know, if you bring, you can’t pour water out of an empty cup, right, you know, you can dump it upside down, there’s nothing coming out of it. But and you know, where you really shine at your very best at whatever job you as you are doing is when you work from the overflow, you know, when your cup is full, and and if we’re in a good way you write your cup is for you, you’ve done all the work, you’ve done everything you need to do to be at your very best, and you can work on your flow, and then your job is fun. And it’s meaningful and it’s in it’s it’s beneficial to those around you.

Todd Gyure 1:06:07
And your point about how it’s a daily thing, it’s it’s very similar to how we live a lot of the rest of our life. So I know a lot of people, they consume chiropractic, well, they don’t go to the chiropractor once and never again, it’s part of their practice, they go once a week, some I know people that get a massage twice a month, they don’t just do it one month or one time, it’s part of their daily practice for their wellness. And then like pro athletes, we just have to look at pro athletes or Olympic athletes and see that wellness is part of a daily practice. And when you see athletes that perform at a really high level, they are doing all of the wellness, they’re consuming all of that wellness stuff, off the normal practice field or playing time field they’re putting in the time, so they can keep performing at a high level. So we have a lot to learn from that, like from just pro athletes how they take care of their bodies. That is a daily practice, they can’t miracle themselves to that. They have to be working at it and committed to it so they can perform at a high level. When the game comes,

Conrad Weaver 1:07:16
I remember seeing an interview with Kobe Bryant when he was still alive. And he said that, you know, when he first got into the NBA, he was you know, at this very, very high level. And he would come into a team and they’d be in a maybe in another city and they were ready for a game the next night and, and he’d be like, Okay, guys, you meet me in the gym at five o’clock in the morning. And the rest of the guys are like what what he was like, if you want to win this, what you got to do, if you want to bring a championship to your team, you got to do the hard work, and whether you whether you want to or not. And that’s a great example for all of us that, here’s here’s a guy that was immensely talented, he could shoot, you know, free throws, he could shoot three pointers and do all the stuff. But he knew that he had to do a daily practice, to stay at that level and to perform at that level. So that’s important for all of us. Well, Todd, thank you so much for the work you’re doing. And for being a leader and an innovator. And for congratulations on the Overwatch peer support. thing that you’re launching, and I can’t wait to see what what the results are of that over the next few months and years. And definitely. So what’s what’s something you’re looking forward to in the next couple of weeks or months? Doing anything fun?

Todd Gyure 1:08:34
Oh, yeah, fun. So one of the things that’s going to be fun is my better half Becky, her job is holding a a one day conference in El Paso and her parents live there. And you know, that’s Texas is like bigger than like five or six states combined. So that’s a 10 or 11 hour drive. We’re still in Texas. So we’re actually going to fly down there. We don’t get to go down there as much as we would like. And we’re gonna get to spend several nights out there and visit our family and stuff. So that’s going to be pretty fun. And you know, her job going down to doing a conference some of the target audience is first responders. So that’s gonna be pretty cool. And we’ve built some interesting contacts down there. We’re gonna have it on the bookshelf, but we need to but we’re going to be trying to go to apply say the name wrong but like, Catalina, I live in California. And that’s going to be just like, no schedule, no. Guide, no, nothing, like just hanging out, relaxing. Chillin recharging the batteries. So we need to get that on the books to make sure it actually is going to happen. That’s something else fun we’re gonna be. We’re gonna be doing

Conrad Weaver 1:09:58
awesome. Awesome. Well done. I’ve never been to Catalina Island, but I’ve heard a lot about it. And I have a friend who plays in a jazz festival out there. And so it, that would be a fun trip. So well, Todd, thank you so much for being on the program today. Thank you for being on the inaugural program for the first founder wellness podcast. I really appreciate it. Appreciate you appreciate your work. And just stay in touch and let us know how the Overwatch peer support program is going to do.

Todd Gyure 1:10:25
We’ll do we’ll do we’ll get it out to your area there. So some of your first responders can benefit from that option that buffet of options.

Conrad Weaver 1:10:33
Awesome. Thanks so much for listening to the show. I really appreciate it. And please leave a review and give it five stars if you think it’s worth it. And please subscribe to the show. And just a reminder that you can see the video of this content on our Patreon channel. I’ll leave a link in the show notes where you can access that we want others to discover this content and benefit from it as well. So please share it. Until next time, be well take care of yourself and those around you and go out and do something good in the world.