Thursday webinar to discuss managing the trauma that comes from reporting on trauma

At 2 p.m. ET on Thursday, Oct. 15, the Pennsylvania News Media Association will host a free one-hour webinar on how journalists can effectively manage the trauma that comes from reporting on traumatic events. 

From the website: "Reporting on traumatic events has become an all-too-familiar responsibility for editorial teams. Just as first responders need to be aware of the effects their work on the front line brings to them as individuals, so must the journalists who report on stressful and tragic situations . . . We will provide essential tips for reporters to ensure your own physical and emotional well-being as it relates to performing the duties of your job. We'll also include information about mental health and provide coping strategies as well as details about support groups, both externally and within your own media organization."

Though the webinar is free, pre-registration is required. Click here for more information or to register.

Staffing issues put one-third of rural ambulance services in jeopardy, National Rural Health Association says

A Tri-State ambulance (Image from WEAU-TV)

One-third of rural emergency medical services are so short-staffed that they are in "immediate operational jeopardy," posing risks to rural residents who rely on them as a health-care safety net, says a policy brief from the National Rural Health Association.

"Dwindling population, losses in the volunteer workforce, and decreased reimbursement threaten continued access to these services," says the the brief by Nikki King, Marcus Pigman, Sarah Huling and Brian Hanson.

"One of the largest contributing factors to the disparity in mortality rate from traumas, such as overdose, for rural residents (discussed above) is travel time and distance to trauma centers," they write. "Rural residents are significantly more likely than non-rural residents to die following traumatic injury."

Hayley Spitler of WEAU-TV in Eau Claire, Wis., cited the brief in a story that featured Kent Stein, operations manger of Tri-State Ambulance. "We're experiencing the same thing that companies are experiencing nationwide, both volunteer and professional companies. We sometimes can run into a challenge finding EMTs and medics out of school."

Over a year after the shooting, Capital Gazette journalists keep publishing to 'do the work we love' and honor the fallen

The Capital Gazette staff on Dec. 9, 2018.
(TIME photo by Moises Saman)

On June 28, 2018, five newspaper staffers died when a man opened fire in the newsroom of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Md. Time magazine has followed the survivors in the aftermath, covering their trauma, their efforts to keep doing their jobs in the wake of tragedy, and their unusual role as journalists who have become the subject of stories.

"Journalists, as a species, generally despise being the subjects of the news. We sign up to see our names in the bylines, not the headlines. But events put the staff of the Capital Gazette in a new place," Sean Gregory reports. "As journalists, they were a new addition to the expanding annals of American gun violence—uniquely positioned to register all its impacts, from the initial moments so horrifying they draw the attention of the entire world, through the far longer period when that attention has moved on, and they don’t get to."

Capital Gazette staffers opened up to Gregory about how they're dealing with the trauma. Many have sought therapy and medication. One began making pottery. Above all, they kept doing their jobs. "Putting out the paper has value besides what’s in the paper," editor Rick Hutzell told Gregory. "Every day you’re here is another day farther away from what happened. Every day you’re here is another day when you’re alive. And we have friends who are not. Every day here is another day we can honor their memories, and do the work we love."