Red Deer Chief of Emergency Services Ken McMullen (right) receives President’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Fire Services in North America by the International Association of Fire Chiefs. (Supplied)

By Alessia Proietti and Sheldon Spackman

International Association of Fire Chiefs

Red Deer’s Chief of Emergency Services Ken McMullen receives prestigious award

Sep 2, 2022 | 9:05 AM

Red Deer’s very own Chief of Emergency Services Ken McMullen recently became the recipient of a prestigious and international award for work in his industry.

At last week’s International Association of Fire Chiefs conference in San Antonio, Texas, McMullen was one of seven awarded with the President’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Fire Services in North America.

Discovering the morning of that he’d be receiving it, McMullen was surprised and humbled to realize the award was for his advocacy work for first responder access to mental health services.

“This has been a bit of a lifelong goal of mine to continue to work on the mental health of first responders. There are just far too many extremely sad stories of members that are impacted by what it is we ask them to do every single day, and we, as a society, have a lot of work to do to ensure that the stigma around mental health is broken,” he said.

President’s Award by the International Association of Fire Chiefs. (Supplied)

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McMullen’s work includes bringing resilience training to first responders at the earliest level, providing access to various initiatives such as the Before Occupational Stress (BOS) program and the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Resilient Minds program, which he co-leads. He’s been involved with the University of Regina as a member of the Academic, Researcher, and Clinician (ARC) Network, part of the Canadian Institute for Public Safety Research and Treatment (CIPSRT). As well, he is Vice-President for the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs (CAFC) and Chair for its Mental Health Committee, among various other titles.

However, McMullen wants to point out it isn’t just frontline workers who need access to mental health supports, but also those in leadership.

“I speak about the importance of chief officers and how those in leadership positions also need the opportunity to discuss what they face. It’s not to compare, but I have to tell you that the pressures as a chief and a chief officer are different than those of the frontline; one isn’t more stressful, but they’re different,” he said.

Although “shocked and blown away” by the recognition, McMullen says he can’t take all the credit.

“I thank people for coming to work every day and for giving their best in spite of the challenges they’re facing. The women and men of Red Deer Emergency Services continue to amaze me,” he said.

“Our EMS [Emergency Medical Services] system is certainly under pressure and our women and men are facing that every day. I do ride-alongs, I sit in stations and I hear the stresses that our staff are facing and it’s not lost on me, it’s not lost on the other chief officers, the impact that is being had on our staff. This is just a reminder why it’s so important to keep the conversation alive.”

Chief McMullen began his career as a Volunteer Fire Fighter in 1997 in Rocky View, Alberta. Later becoming a fire inspector for the provincial government, he then took his expertise to Airdrie and Calgary before coming to Red Deer as Fire Chief in 2018.