YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Mahoning County Commissioner Geno DiFabio is familiar with the situations police encounter, because his own father was an officer for 34 years.
During a shift, an officer might have to respond to an automobile crash, or an assault on a woman or a child.
“Then you come home and you take off your uniform and you’re just supposed to be Dad to five little kids,” he says. “There has to be a way that we can help in between.”
As awareness grows of the pressures on police, firefighters, emergency medical services personnel and other first responders, local communities are making greater efforts to provide resources to help connect them with the resources that they need.
Two places that opened in recent years – Clarence R. Smith Jr. Family Mahoning Valley First Responder Wellness Center in Boardman and Camp Braveheart in East Palestine – provide a dedicated space for public safety personnel to receive counseling, talk with peers or simply relax in a healing environment.
Though the need for such centers has been discussed for some time, it’s only been in the past few years – especially in Ohio – that they have begun to open around the state, according to Kristen Slaper, director of public safety initiatives at the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
“We’ve been talking for years about wellness programs and the need to address first responders’ mental health needs because of what they’re seeing when they’re responding to a situation or they’re dealing with a situation, whether that’s police, fire, EMS, dispatch, whatever it is,” she says. “It’s just a matter of learning and understanding now what those needs are, and being willing to talk about them.”
Daniela Ghizzoni, director of clinical services for the Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery Board, says first responders have a challenging task. “They have to make quick decisions and right decisions immediately,” she says.
They are under pressure not to let people down and have to take what they’ve experienced home with them, she adds.
MAHONING VALLEY CENTER
The Mahoning Valley First Responder Wellness Center, which provides services for 152 first responder agencies in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties, is not meant to replace any existing programs, Boardman Police Chief Todd Werth says.
“This is just more facilitating and connecting services,” he says. Since opening last October, it has provided training and educational services for more than 700 individuals from 70 agencies.
Boardman Township officials early last year had been discussing what to do with the family residence of the late businessman Clarence Smith, who had donated the property to the township, when Werth came across an article about a wellness center for first responders in Louisville, Ky. Township trustees quickly dedicated funds from Boardman’s share of the national opioid settlement and the Mahoning County Board of Commissioners allocated county opioid funds as well.
“My father served the community and it was his whole life,” his daughter, Gwen Smith-Darnell, a member of the center’s board of trustees, reflects. “He would just love this.”
There has been “a significant movement” in the first responder professions about the need to focus on wellness and “being proactive about it,” Werth affirms. First responders in the field routinely respond to traumatic situations, including domestic violence and accidents.
“People don’t call dispatch when they’re having a good day,” he says. There also are times when a first responder is unable to provide the help someone needs, or is exposed to the ugly side of humanity, which has “a systemic, long-term impact,” he adds. They also might have to deal with an injured child who is the same age as their child.
“Some of that stuff will dwell with you,” and learning how to deal with those feelings in a healthy manner is important for first responders, he stresses.
Tom Costello, a former township trustee who also serves on the center’s board, says he saw the need while in office for a place where first responders “could release what was stuck inside of them and work through issues.” Many explained they did not want to go someplace public “to sit down and work through these issues.”
About $750,000 so far has been spent on converting the 5,500-square-foot former residence and surrounding property for the center, including adjustments to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, Werth said. A 97-vehicle parking lot was among the additions.
Back when DiFabio’s father was in uniform, there was no such help for first responders, many of whom turned to alcohol or other less productive measures to cope with what they experienced, DiFabio recalls.
“You shouldn’t be broken from your job, from your helping people,” DiFabio says. “We shouldn’t allow people to remain broken. We have to fix them.”
First responders are pleased that the township, Mahoning County and other communities recognized the need for such a center, Costello says. He recalls an incident that illustrated the need for such a place, when two young officers were the first to arrive at the scene of a suicide. The experience “shook them to the core,” he says.
“Our first responders deal daily with things that nobody else wants to deal with, and we need to make sure we keep them safe, physically and mentally, so they can continue to provide and protect us, but also so they are good to their families,” Costello says.
CAMP BRAVEHEART
In Columbiana County, Camp Braveheart grew out of the effort by the county mental health board to establish a first responder wellness program in 2023, says Kelli Hephner, a certified police wellness officer and founder-president of the camp.
After a critical-incident stress management team was created, officials recognized the need for more peer support programming. Marcy Patton, the board’s previous clinical director, asked Hephner to think broadly about what she wanted to do for first responder wellness.
Hephner told Patton about the camp, an idea she had had for the past 20 years. “I thought it was for something different, but I realized it was mostly for first responder wellness,” she says.
Hephner started discussions with first responders, who “absolutely loved the idea,” and the nonprofit organization was launched.
The camp works with police officers, firefighters, EMS personnel and dispatch employees, as well as veterans, active duty military, vehicle recovery drivers and employees at the county coroner’s office, says Hephner, who also earned her chaplain’s certification.
“We have quite a few of us trained in peer support, so we offer that,” she says. “We’re just really creating this from the ground up.”
When a first responder or veteran in crisis reaches out for help, the camp will send out a peer supporter to meet with the person and help connect him or her with needed resources, Mark Stillion, says.
Stillion, who served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, is a member of the camp’s board of directors and leads the camp’s community engagement and development team. He also is a licensed professional counselor and an independent chemical dependency counselor in Lisbon.
“Our goal is to serve those who have served us – those who have served the county, the country, the community,” he says.
The camp is based at a 90-acre site that a supporter is letting the organization use, Hephner says. When clients are asked what they do for self care, most of them talk about taking part in nature and doing activities like fishing, walking and camping.
“If that’s what our responders are telling us, it makes sense for us to create something that will help feed into them and help them with resiliency and healing, not only with themselves but with their families,” she says. Research also showed that the value of healing in nature while being unplugged from the world is “astronomical.”
The camp also does meetings at various sites around the county, she says. At present, there are no permanent structures on the site, so tents are used for overnight stays and other events.
“We try to do as many [events] as we can at the camp,” Stillson says. “It’s hard to do anything at the camp without having a building, so that’s why right now one of our biggest initiatives is to raise money for that.”
The camp is looking to raise between $75,000 and $100,000 to fund what is being called its “flagship building,” he continues. So far, about $20,000 has been raised.
“That’s not a very large building. That’s just a base to get us started,” he adds. The vision is to establish multiple buildings, including cabins, and ultimately create a full-service camp where first responders, veterans and service members can receive the treatment or counseling that they need.
The camp has been working on building the programming and doing more outreach during the winter months, Hephner says. “In the wintertime, without having a building, there’s not a lot we could do down there but we want to change that,” she says.
During the first three months of 2026, Camp Braveheart has had more than 160 peer support interactions, more than 110 interactions with first responders in departments and intervened on 10 crisis calls.
PROVIDING SERVICES
Other facilities in Ohio include ones in Columbus and Franklin County, as well as Loveland-Symmes Township in the southwest region of the state, Slaper says.
In addition to providing space for counseling, some have physical fitness and therapy equipment, and features such as a cold plunge tub and sauna, along with access to trainers for rehabilitation of physical injuries.
The spaces are private, which is “extremely important” when dealing with first responders, who already might be hesitant about addressing mental health needs, Slaper says.
“When we’re developing our programming, we’re trying to keep that in mind,” Stillion says. “It’s really difficult when it comes to first responders and veterans because a lot of them do not want to ask for help and a lot of them do not like the idea of talking to a ‘counselor.’ That’s really why it’s so important to have that peer support element in place.”
Police officers or other first responders might be reluctant to go downtown to an agency that offers mental health services and interact with someone they might encounter on a daily basis, Werth affirms.
“This is kind of a safe place,” he remarks. “It’s already had a significant impact on our area.”
Ghizzoni says it’s “super important” that they have a place where they can just be themselves. “They don’t have to mask anything that they’re feeling,” she says. “They’re around individuals who have experienced similar situations.”
Pictured at top: The Clarence R. Smith Jr. Family Mahoning Valley First Responder Wellness Centr opened in Boardman last fall. Pictured in the center are Mahoning County Commissioner Geno DiFabio, former Boardman township trustee Tom Costello, Gwen Smith-Darnell and Boardman Township Police Chief Todd Werth.
