by Round Lake Area Exchange Club Above and Beyond Award Recipient, our one and only Nick Flood!!!
To Whom it may concern,
I am writing this letter to nominate TC Nick Flood for the Round Lake Area Exchange “Above and Beyond” Award. TC Flood has been a dispatcher at CenCom E9-1-1 since June 2014. In that time, he has grown to be an amazing dispatcher and public servant. Being a 911 dispatcher is the ultimate role in community service.
On people’s worst days, we are there to answer the call. We are rarely seen but always heard. Being a 911 dispatcher is not an easy job, and it takes a special person to do it. We hear the screams, we send the help, and often never know the outcome of the call. We work long hours, sometimes on little sleep. This can put a toll on your mental health.
TC Flood has gone Above and beyond to promote mental health wellness within in the communication center. During Telecommunicator week TC Flood planned theme days and helped arrange mental health services such as “Malachi the Comfort Dog” as well as “10-41 Incorporated” to visit the center for the dispatcher’s benefit. TC Week was fun and allowed our center to let loose, relax and get back to having some fun with dress up days.
TC Flood arranged positive affirmations to send out each day during the week. These messages included inspirational quotes and poems, as well as mental health resources that can be used by the dispatchers in the center.
Mental health is often overlooked within our profession. It gave a positive spin to have someone reach out and work on extending that help to some of the dispatchers that may not have known they needed it. These resources will be a help to our center moving forward in handling the stress that comes along with being the voice on the other end of the phone.
When you fly on an airplane, they tell you if the oxygen masks are needed, make sure to put yours on before trying to help the person next to you. That does not only apply to the oxygen masks on the airplanes. This should also be used in real life. To be the best dispatchers, we can be, to provide the highest level of service to the communities we serve, we need to put our mental health (put on our oxygen mask) as a priority.
At the end of the day, we need the ones that answer that 911 phone line to be 100%, physically and mentally. These resources will help ensure that CenCom dispatchers are taking care of their mental health.
TC Flood has gone above and beyond his duties, to ensure his co-works (his family) are taken care of. This in turn ensures the community is taken care of. TC Nick Flood is more than deserving of this award.
