Burnout gets all the attention, but what if burnout isn't the real problem?

In this episode, Elliott Moya and Billy Dries sit down with Wally Fraser and Brad Gallant to discuss first responder wellness, leadership, culture, and what actually helps people thrive in high-stress professions.

The conversation explores why some wellness initiatives succeed while others fail, the importance of authenticity in leadership, family impact, mandatory wellness checks, and the challenge of balancing control at work with life at home.

The episode also includes the announcement of the 2026 Maine Wellness Conference keynote speaker, AK Dozanti, along with details about this year's conference and the continued effort to bring meaningful wellness conversations to first responders across Maine.

Topics include:

• Why some wellness programs fail

• The difference between policy and culture

• Burnout and first responder mental health

• Family impact and support systems

• Authentic leadership and wellness

• Control, stress, and life outside the job

• The 2026 Maine Wellness Conference

• Keynote speaker announcement: AK Dozanti

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

02:45 Brad's Personal Wellness Journey

07:30 Building the Maine Wellness Conference

12:00 Family and First Responder Wellness

16:45 Why Wellness Programs Fail

20:30 Culture vs Policy

25:00 AK Dozanti Announced as Keynote Speaker

27:45 Control at Work vs Control at Home

33:15 Practical Wellness Takeaways

35:45 Maine Wellness Conference 2026

38:00 Final Thoughts

Learn more:

Follow Maine Responder Podcast for conversations on leadership, wellness, resilience, and the realities of life behind the uniform.

🌲 Maine Wellness Conference Website: https://www.mainewellnessconference.org/

Dr. Wally Fraser https://www.wjfraserconsulting.com/

🌲 Toned Out Project: www.tonedoutproject.com

🌲 Keynote Speaker AK Dozanti: https://akdozanti.com/

If you’re a first responder, leader, spouse, clinician, or someone passionate about improving the culture around wellness in public safety — this episode is for you.

We make a lot of decisions every day—but the ones that cause the most damage usually aren’t the big ones.

They’re the small moments in conversation.

The ones where something hits you the wrong way…
your patience drops…
your ego gets involved…
and you know whatever you’re about to say isn’t going to help—

…and you say it anyway.

In this episode, I talk about what I call the FOODA Loop—that cycle where we react, circle, and never actually decide how we want to respond.

This isn’t about emergencies or split-second decisions.
It’s about the conversations that feel urgent—but aren’t.

Why your brain defaults to reaction…
how emotion can take over before you even realize it…
and how just a few seconds can be the difference between making it worse or handling it the right way.

Simple, real, and something you can actually use.

Because most mistakes don’t happen in big moments—
they happen in the small ones that add up.

What started as a conversation about NeeDohs and fidget toys quickly turned into an honest discussion about focus, classroom distractions, school theft, and why these squishy toys have become so popular.

In this special Maine Responder episode, Elliott sits down with with his daughter and her friends to hear their perspective on:

• What fidget toys actually do
• How NeeDohs help some students focus
• When fidgets become distractions instead of tools
• The rise of trading, scams, and stolen squishies at school
• Why some teachers allow fidgets—and others don't
• Advice for kids and parents about bringing collectibles to school

It's funny, honest, and surprisingly insightful because the conversation comes directly from the kids experiencing it every day.

Whether you're a parent, teacher, counselor, or just wondering why everyone suddenly wants a NeeDoh, this episode offers a unique look into one of today's biggest playground and classroom trends.

Most officers don’t stay in the job because they want to…
They stay because they feel like they have to.

After attending a wellness course, this episode opens with a raw reflection on retirement, identity, and what happens when the job is no longer who you are.

We’re joined by Mark Roberts, founder of Shift Change, and a first responder, to break down one of the most overlooked stressors in public safety: financial pressure.

We discuss:

• Why most officers don’t fully understand their pension until late in their career
• How financial stress can make officers feel trapped in the job
• The connection between money, decision-making, and burnout
• What financial wellness actually means (hint: it’s not about being rich)
• Simple steps to take control early in your career

This conversation is about more than money—it’s about freedom, clarity, and having the ability to choose your path in and after policing.

🎧 Maine Responder Podcast
Real conversations about work, pressure, and the lives shaped by service.

What happens when a single conversation changes the way you view policing, leadership, and wellness?

In this episode, Elliott Moya, Billy Dries, and Ron Lund sit down with Hannah Longley to discuss crisis intervention, peer support, critical incidents, officer wellness, and the cultural shift happening within law enforcement.

The conversation explores how peer support teams help first responders navigate difficult calls, the emotional toll of helping others, the importance of supporting the helpers, and why authentic leadership is changing the way agencies approach wellness.

Hannah also shares her journey working with first responders, building peer support programs, advancing confidentiality protections, and helping agencies create healthier cultures for officers and their families.

Topics include:

• Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training

• Peer support and critical incident response

• Supporting the helpers

• Officer wellness and resilience

• Leadership and culture change

• First responder families and relationships

• Confidentiality protections for peer support

• Why asking for help is becoming more accepted in policing

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

03:00 How CIT Changed Our Perspective

06:00 Building Peer Support Teams

09:45 What Peer Support Actually Does

14:00 Helping the Helpers

18:00 When Debriefs Go Wrong

22:00 The Importance of Trust

25:30 The Growth of Peer Support in Maine

30:00 Culture Change in Law Enforcement

36:00 Why Officers Finally Reach Out

41:00 Hannah's Wellness Mission

46:00 Peer Support Confidentiality

53:00 Supporting First Responder Families

57:00 Final Thoughts

Learn More:

Contact information for Hannah Longley can be found in the episode show notes.

Follow Maine Responder Podcast for conversations on leadership, wellness, resilience, and the realities of life behind the uniform.

Hannah Longley, LCSW, owner of DOCHAS WELLNESS, LLC ([email protected] ) is a Maine native and licensed clinical social worker with extensive experience in community mental health, crisis response, and supporting first responders. Her background includes work within the mental health crisis system, contracting with the Maine Army National Guard, and prior work with NAMI Maine. She brings a strong, trauma-informed and systems-based approach to her work.

This one hits on policing, wellness, and the human side of the job—for officers, leaders, and families alike.

This episode of the Maine Responder Podcast takes on something most first responders deal with yet rarely talk about: chronic pain.

Not the generic advice. Not the “just stretch it out” version.

We get into the real experience—what it feels like to show up to work in pain, how it impacts your mindset, and why the culture often pushes people to ignore it.

Trish, a licensed clinical professional counselor working within a police department, shares her firsthand experience with chronic pain and what’s actually helped—from acupuncture and cupping to rethinking movement, recovery, and identity.

We talk about:

• Why first responders ignore pain until it gets worse
• The mental and emotional toll of chronic pain
• How pain impacts decision-making, patience, and performance
• The frustration of surface-level advice
• Alternative approaches like acupuncture and cupping—and why they work for some people
• The role of movement, awareness, and changing habits

This isn’t a checklist.
It’s a real conversation about what it takes to keep going—and doing it the right way.

🎧 Maine Responder Podcast

Real conversations about work, pressure, and the lives shaped by service.

In this episode of the Maine Responder Podcast, Elliott sits down with Ron to talk about how their agency’s wellness journey really began. What started during the uncertainty of COVID and a deeper focus on Crisis Intervention Team training eventually turned inward, leading to bigger conversations about leadership, peer support, physical health, vulnerability, and what it actually means to take care of the people doing the job.

This is an honest conversation about how wellness did not begin as a trendy program or a policy box to check. It grew out of real experiences, strong relationships, better leadership, and a willingness to ask hard questions about how officers are doing, both on and off the job.

They talk about the culture shift inside a small department, the role of peer support, medical screenings, testosterone and health awareness for officers over 40, and why simple conversations still matter more than people think. There is humor in this one too, because that is part of how responders get through things, but underneath it is a serious message: wellness starts with people who care enough to go first.

If you care about leadership, officer wellness, peer support, or building a healthier culture in police, fire, EMS, or first responder work, this episode is worth your time.

This episode is a Short one—but it might be one of the most important.

Elliott keeps the momentum going with a solo reflection sparked by last week’s conversation with Matt Leach… and a simple question:

What have we gotten wrong about wellness?

In a profession where wellness conversations often come from trauma, mistakes, and hard calls, it’s easy to associate the entire movement with something heavy.

But what if we’ve overlooked something?

What if some of the most impactful “wellness” moments were never labeled as wellness at all?

In this episode, Elliott shares:

• A personal story from early in his career during one of the hardest times in his life
• The quiet leadership moments that made a lasting impact
• A shift in perspective—from focusing on what went wrong to recognizing what actually worked
• The role of chiefs, command staff, and supervisors in shaping real culture
• Why wellness doesn’t always live at the top—but on the shift

And at the center of it all… two simple words:

“You good?”

This is a conversation about leadership, reflection, and not overcomplicating what already works.

Because sometimes… it’s not about building something new.

It’s about remembering what mattered all along.

In this episode of the Maine Responder Podcast, we sit down with Matt Leach — firefighter, social worker, and one of the leaders helping shape the wellness mission at the York County Regional Training Center in Southern Maine.

What starts with a conversation about retirement, identity, and the strange way first responders seem to measure life by “how much time is left” turns into a deeper discussion about what it really means to care for yourself while serving others.

Matt shares his journey from the fire service into social work, how personal loss and years on the job shaped his perspective, and why peer support, therapy, prevention, and post-traumatic growth matter so much in first responder culture. The conversation explores the value of vulnerability, the role families play in recognizing when responders are struggling, and why wellness cannot just be a program — it has to be built into the culture.

Matt serves as the First Responder Wellness & Resiliency Program Administrator at the York County Regional Training Center connect with Matt https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-leach-7b473633/

In this episode, Elliott is joined by his wife Rebecca for a conversation that started during a first responder wellness training and quickly turned into something bigger.

They talk about the idea many responders grow up hearing: “We’re a family.” But what happens when that belief collides with reality?

From institutional betrayal to burnout, boundaries, and the emotional weight of the job, Elliott and Rebecca explore why redefining that word might actually be healthier for responders and their real families at home.

They also talk about the importance of balance, the difference between camaraderie and family, and how protecting your well-being sometimes means drawing clearer lines.

And in true Maine Responder Podcast fashion, the episode ends with a very important mission from a special guest — Elliott and Rebecca’s daughter — who is on a serious Girl Scout cookie campaign.

Because supporting young entrepreneurs is part of community wellness too.

Update - Charlee made camp thanks to all who supported- we are really grateful and now Charlee has focused on helping sister scouts that haven't quite met their goal.