Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Good morning. You're listening to Michigan's Big Show starring Michael
Patrick Shields. And my name is Scott Ellison. I'm sitting
in this morning and I have a great lineup. My
next guest, Ahad A. Bandeey is the chief product officer
of KEEL, which powers the National Peer Support Network. You know,
I spent twenty years in law enforcements, you know, Tony,
and I once heard that the average person will experience
(00:30):
two critical incidents in their lifetime, but the average American
police officer will experience over eight hundred incidents. So obviously, yeah,
mental health wellness is a very you know, very important
topic to me and personally, and so had I really
appreciate you joining this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
How are you. I'm doing well, Scott, thanks for having
me this morning.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Thank you, And can you give me you know what,
how does what we see as as public safety affect
us mentally and our mental wellness? What what does it
do to our psyche?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
It's a great question. I think it's something that we
society take for granted and don't fully realize how much
stress is put on our firstponder's day in day out right,
and so when an individual, when human sees trauma consistently.
It actually has implications on the neurological makeup of our brain.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
For us to deal with stress as we survive for
thousands of years, we have certain response. We're wired to
respond in a certain way, whether it's the release of cortisol
or stress hormone to deal with what's in front of us. Right,
and so what happens over time is that when we're
exposed to stressful experiences one after the other, we see
(01:43):
blood flow, we see auction constantly being diverted to our
megal love. That's our sympathetic response. We've all heard of fight,
flight or freeze, right. Well, our brain is very unique
and interesting. It develops pathways and it says, you know what,
I need to get this blood flow, this auction to
that air of their brain more effectively, more efficiently because
of how much stressed the person seeing, they need to
be in this state more frequently. And during that process.
(02:07):
There's other areas that that suffer, right, are prefrontal cortex
as an example, which is responsible for decision making, for
executive functioning, right, and so you know it also plays
a key role in in housing the brokens are of
our brain. Which is responsible for language. And so when
this happens consistently, an individual finds themselves less willing, less
(02:28):
wanted to talk about situations, not justically of the traumatic experience,
but because their brain has rewired them to be in
a sympathetic response, which means the area of their brain
that controls language and language output gets less activation over time.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
So that affects Yeah, and so that affects not only
just their personally, but also how they respond in the
line of duty, right, I mean, if they're under stress
and they're going call to call and seeing different things,
and you know that, you know, we see officers or
anybody in public safety maybe do you know, do something
that's a little much, and you know, we often forget
about their mental health and wellness. Are we doing enough
for our first responders currently in our society? And what
(03:06):
can we do? What more can we do?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Now? You're you raise a good point in one that
that I got exposed to this space. You know, I've
been I've been in I've been in critical psychology for years.
I've also been, uh, you know, an avid student of
neurological sciences. And when I got exposed to the first
responder space, one thing I realized, right forbod is we
(03:33):
aren't doing enough. We aren't doing enough.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
And you know that, Well tell me, no, tell me
about the national peer support network that you guys have
technology and how your technology is playing a role.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah. Absolutely, So what we saw is is an opportunity
to help connect first responders across the nation with the
support that that that could help them deal with the
day and day out right. You know, if if you're
if you're listeners are familiar with you know, at and
T first that they end up creating a national network,
you know, on the heels of nine to eleven. And
(04:07):
why do they create that? They created that because they
thought that you know, after any sort of black Swan
event or significant circumstance in our in our history, firstpondors
should never not be in contact, right, They need to
deal with, you know, answering some of the emergencies, some
of the calls that we have in society. Right, so
they built this network for them to kind of always
be connected. Well, we saw an opportunity to say, you
know what, first responders should always be connected to mental
(04:30):
health supports across the nation. You have small agencies that
may not have peer support structures. You have large agencies
that may have robust peer support structures, and so we
saw an opportunity to leverage technology and the latest advancements
in AI to take someone in California and Stockton, California
and connect them with you know, someone in Bay Harbor, Florida,
(04:50):
a police officer, firefighter, and someone who serves as the
EMS individual can connect with these folks trained peer supporters
engaged in CA conversations in a secure digital environment. Can
you know, have access to tools that can help them
cope with the day to day stressors that come from
their job, and can do so efficiently and effectively.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
So yeah, So it sounds like I mean, I think
of this, you know, when I was on the job
and if I wanted to talk to somebody. Sometimes we
have that fear to share it within our own department.
But you're saying, with your technology, I can reach out.
I can find a peer supporter across the country, maybe
a same sized department, same same line of work, maybe
even went through the same incidents. You're saying your technology
in the National Peer Support Network is bringing all that together.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yes, sir, Yes, sir, so giving you the opportunity to
match with someone based on preference right, things like age, ethnicity, gender,
area of support, type of first responder. Right, I'm positioned
within that firstponder agency. You can match on all that
using the technology right, and when you get matched, it
actually brings up, you know, your three top matches of
(05:59):
which you get to say select and he listened to
a bit of a bio on the individual, and we
do this in a unique way. That individual that you
may select, they've been prior to prior to being put
in the system. They actually go through a quick fifteen
minute interview with an AI Chapel right that asks them,
you know why you get into your support, what'll push
you to this area, et cetera. That interview is then
(06:21):
automatically edited down to a three to five minute what
sounds like a podcast, right. So it's got you know,
music imbued. It's very engaging. And so when you click
on that individual that matches all that criteria, you could
listen to their story and stories are what bind us
together in society. That's been that's been you know, true
since the fun of time. And so you get to
(06:41):
hear this person's story why they got into the work
that they got into and why they're the best match
for you, and then you simply select them, and now
you can engage in a conversation via audio video, even
just dialing over the phone, you know, any time of day.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Well, we're we're running out of time on a hot
I could talk for hours on this. And I want
to say, first of all, as a first response in
many years, I really appreciate what you and the National
Peer Support Network are doing. And if you know, if
you want to get involved, please look up the National
Peer Support Network and let's take care of our first responders.
And ah, thank you very much for joining us, and
keep up the good work.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Appreciate it. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
You're listening to Michigan's Big Show starring Michael Patrick Shields.
Good morning. You're listening to Michigan's Big Show starring Michael
Patrick Shields. And my name is Scott Ellison. I'm sitting
in this morning and I have a great lineup. My
next guest, Ahad A. Bandeey is the chief product officer
of KEEL, which powers the National Peer Support Network. You know,
I spent twenty years in law enforcements, you know, Tony,
and I once heard that the average person will experience
(00:30):
two critical incidents in their lifetime, but the average American
police officer will experience over eight hundred incidents. So obviously, yeah,
mental health wellness is a very you know, very important
topic to me and personally, and so had I really
appreciate you joining this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
How are you. I'm doing well, Scott, thanks for having
me this morning.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Thank you, And can you give me you know what,
how does what we see as as public safety affect
us mentally and our mental wellness? What what does it
do to our psyche?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
It's a great question. I think it's something that we
society take for granted and don't fully realize how much
stress is put on our firstponder's day in day out right,
and so when an individual, when human sees trauma consistently.
It actually has implications on the neurological makeup of our brain.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
For us to deal with stress as we survive for
thousands of years, we have certain response. We're wired to
respond in a certain way, whether it's the release of cortisol
or stress hormone to deal with what's in front of us. Right,
and so what happens over time is that when we're
exposed to stressful experiences one after the other, we see
(01:43):
blood flow, we see auction constantly being diverted to our
megal love. That's our sympathetic response. We've all heard of fight,
flight or freeze, right. Well, our brain is very unique
and interesting. It develops pathways and it says, you know what,
I need to get this blood flow, this auction to
that air of their brain more effectively, more efficiently because
of how much stressed the person seeing, they need to
be in this state more frequently. And during that process.
(02:07):
There's other areas that that suffer, right, are prefrontal cortex
as an example, which is responsible for decision making, for
executive functioning, right, and so you know it also plays
a key role in in housing the brokens are of
our brain. Which is responsible for language. And so when
this happens consistently, an individual finds themselves less willing, less
(02:28):
wanted to talk about situations, not justically of the traumatic experience,
but because their brain has rewired them to be in
a sympathetic response, which means the area of their brain
that controls language and language output gets less activation over time.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
So that affects Yeah, and so that affects not only
just their personally, but also how they respond in the
line of duty, right, I mean, if they're under stress
and they're going call to call and seeing different things,
and you know that, you know, we see officers or
anybody in public safety maybe do you know, do something
that's a little much, and you know, we often forget
about their mental health and wellness. Are we doing enough
for our first responders currently in our society? And what
(03:06):
can we do? What more can we do?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Now? You're you raise a good point in one that
that I got exposed to this space. You know, I've
been I've been in I've been in critical psychology for years.
I've also been, uh, you know, an avid student of
neurological sciences. And when I got exposed to the first
responder space, one thing I realized, right forbod is we
(03:33):
aren't doing enough. We aren't doing enough.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
And you know that, Well tell me, no, tell me
about the national peer support network that you guys have
technology and how your technology is playing a role.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah. Absolutely, So what we saw is is an opportunity
to help connect first responders across the nation with the
support that that that could help them deal with the
day and day out right. You know, if if you're
if you're listeners are familiar with you know, at and
T first that they end up creating a national network,
you know, on the heels of nine to eleven. And
(04:07):
why do they create that? They created that because they
thought that you know, after any sort of black Swan
event or significant circumstance in our in our history, firstpondors
should never not be in contact, right, They need to
deal with, you know, answering some of the emergencies, some
of the calls that we have in society. Right, so
they built this network for them to kind of always
be connected. Well, we saw an opportunity to say, you
know what, first responders should always be connected to mental
(04:30):
health supports across the nation. You have small agencies that
may not have peer support structures. You have large agencies
that may have robust peer support structures, and so we
saw an opportunity to leverage technology and the latest advancements
in AI to take someone in California and Stockton, California
and connect them with you know, someone in Bay Harbor, Florida,
(04:50):
a police officer, firefighter, and someone who serves as the
EMS individual can connect with these folks trained peer supporters
engaged in CA conversations in a secure digital environment. Can
you know, have access to tools that can help them
cope with the day to day stressors that come from
their job, and can do so efficiently and effectively.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
So yeah, So it sounds like I mean, I think
of this, you know, when I was on the job
and if I wanted to talk to somebody. Sometimes we
have that fear to share it within our own department.
But you're saying, with your technology, I can reach out.
I can find a peer supporter across the country, maybe
a same sized department, same same line of work, maybe
even went through the same incidents. You're saying your technology
in the National Peer Support Network is bringing all that together.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yes, sir, Yes, sir, so giving you the opportunity to
match with someone based on preference right, things like age, ethnicity, gender,
area of support, type of first responder. Right, I'm positioned
within that firstponder agency. You can match on all that
using the technology right, and when you get matched, it
actually brings up, you know, your three top matches of
(05:59):
which you get to say select and he listened to
a bit of a bio on the individual, and we
do this in a unique way. That individual that you
may select, they've been prior to prior to being put
in the system. They actually go through a quick fifteen
minute interview with an AI Chapel right that asks them,
you know why you get into your support, what'll push
you to this area, et cetera. That interview is then
(06:21):
automatically edited down to a three to five minute what
sounds like a podcast, right. So it's got you know,
music imbued. It's very engaging. And so when you click
on that individual that matches all that criteria, you could
listen to their story and stories are what bind us
together in society. That's been that's been you know, true
since the fun of time. And so you get to
(06:41):
hear this person's story why they got into the work
that they got into and why they're the best match
for you, and then you simply select them, and now
you can engage in a conversation via audio video, even
just dialing over the phone, you know, any time of day.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Well, we're we're running out of time on a hot
I could talk for hours on this. And I want
to say, first of all, as a first response in
many years, I really appreciate what you and the National
Peer Support Network are doing. And if you know, if
you want to get involved, please look up the National
Peer Support Network and let's take care of our first responders.
And ah, thank you very much for joining us, and
keep up the good work.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Appreciate it. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
You're listening to Michigan's Big Show starring Michael Patrick Shields.
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