In his 25 years as a military chaplain, Phil Ralph had to notify the families of those who were killed in action or took their lives as a result of what they experienced while serving.

Ralph’s own father, a longtime firefighter, was affected by mental health injury at a time when no help was available to him.

That’s why it means so much to Ralph to belong to an organization that helps ill and injured veterans, first responders and their families that struggle with mental health injuries.

“To see lives changed and saved is something that is just wonderful,” said Ralph, national program director of Wounded Warriors Canada.

The group is holding a retreat for 11 of the first responders to the Humboldt Broncos bus crash, as well as their partners, at the Elkridge Resort in Waskesiu Monday through Thursday.

“When it comes to mental health, we’ve found first in the veterans space and now in the first responders space that the greatest difficulty is the willingness for someone to come forward," Ralph said.

“So this creates a safe environment for someone to come forward to explore what’s going on with them, with people that have a shared experience and then if necessary they can then explore the world-leading clinical programs that (Wounded Warriors Canada) and others have that will assist in their recovery.”

Family members are included so they can learn in a safe environment on how to deal with challenges in the family; first responders might see their friends and neighbours at the scenes they attend, and they carry that experience with them, Ralph said.

“And they carry that back into the home, so it changes the dynamic of … the relationships going on at home, which is why although we have programs for individuals we also have some of the nation’s leading programs for families.”

The group’s programs are completely funded through donations from Canadians, he said. The Waskesiu retreat is paid for through the group’s Humboldt First Responder Fund, which raised nearly $200,000 following the accident.

They plan to spend a total of $2.8 million on programming for veterans and first responders this year, Ralph said.