Family of Saskatchewan paramedic speaks out on depression

Jill Jones remembers her fiancé Jack Spyker as a kind and self-sacrificing man.

"He would do absolutely anything for anybody," she recalled.

Spyker worked as a paramedic at WPD Ambulance in North Battleford, Sask. for two years, all the while battling depression.

The 27-year-old, who was originally from Ontario, killed himself on March 17.

Spyker is the seventh first responder to kill himself or herself this year, and the 34th since April 2014.

The couple was getting ready to start a life together. They had just begun planning their wedding and wanted to have children, but the illness became too much for Spyker to bear.

A mind tormented

Jones believes the tragic things Spyker saw on the job contributed to his internal battle.

"Jack loved his job," Jones said. "But the things he saw every day tortured and tormented his mind."

She said he would talk about the experiences running through his mind when he was in a depressed state.

"I think that his work did affect the depression because it just added to it," Jones said. "It added to all the terrible things that were going through his mind on those days."

Jones said Spyker's first call as a paramedic was to attend to a person who had jumped off an overpass. He told her about how he couldn't get the person's lifeless body and eyes out of his mind when he was having a depressive episode.

Jones explained that Spyker confided to her that he felt worthless and felt as though he couldn't seek help. She believes there's a stigma towards mental health problems in the industry and said Spyker thought he'd appear weak to his coworkers.

Troy Davies, who has worked as a paramedic for 20 years and is now with MD Ambulance in Saskatoon, says paramedics and first responders are sometimes held to a higher standard than the general public.

"Paramedics are normal human beings," Davies said. 

"Their kids play soccer, they're part of the community, but they're expected to recover instantly from life-threatening calls, to people who die on calls, to delivering babies, whatever it may be."

He said while the idea that it's weak to ask for help is slowly going away, more needs to be done.

"It's not fixed yet, but we are on the right path," he said.

Walter Dutchak, the general manager of WPD Ambulance in North Battleford as well as the Saskatchewan areas of Lloydminster and Rosthern, tells CBC News that paramedics there can access mental health care that's covered in the benefits package. 

However, Dutchak said that in the end it's up to each individual to seek out help.

"It's open to everybody to have access to, and if you choose not to, it's a personal choice. You have to be ready to receive that help," Dutchak said.

Spyker's family thinks more needs to be done to help people suffering from mental illness feel safe to ask for help.

Seeking help

Spyker did seek mental health care, but apprehensively. He saw a general practitioner in October and was prescribed antidepressants. 

Jones said Spyker didn't respond well to the prescription, so she pressured her fiancé to see a psychiatrist and psychologist, where he received different medication.

Jones said by February his depressive episodes became worse. On March 17, Spyker killed himself.

Jack's mother, Dorothy Spyker, says she hopes paramedics will learn from her son's death that it doesn't need to be this way.

They're out there doing everything for us and we aren't doing anything for them- Dorothy Spyker, Jack's mother

"They need to know they can talk to someone and it's not going to reflect back on them in a stigma kind of way," Dorothy said.

"They're out there doing everything for us and we aren't doing anything for them."

In response to the growing number of first responders who have killed themselves, the national Tema Conter Memorial Trust was established to raise awareness about acute and cumulative stress, compassion fatigue as well as post-traumatic stress disorders in the industry.

Last year the #IveGotYourBack911 campaign was established to show support for first responders experiencing these stresses.

Jones and the Spyker family hope other first responders feeling alone and hopeless will speak out and seek help.

"People need to know they can come forward and talk about it, that's what's going to give them the best chance at surviving," Jones said.

"If one person's life gets saved because of more awareness, then that will really help," Dorothy said.