IronStar Peer Support & Resiliency

IronStar Peer Support & Resiliency Peer-led support and education for EMS and frontline professionals, clinically supported.

Assistant Chief Matthew Anderson kept showing up — to his crew, to his community, and even when the fight moved inside h...
06/08/2026

Assistant Chief Matthew Anderson kept showing up — to his crew, to his community, and even when the fight moved inside his own body. That's not professionalism. That's character.

A proclamation like this matters. It says his name. It puts it on record. It tells his family and his crew that what he gave isn't gone — it's permanent.

IronStar stands with the Johnson Creek Fire & EMS family. Grief after a loss like this isn't a sign something is wrong with you. It's a sign something was right about him.

To his crew: you're allowed to feel this. If you need a hand finding support, we're here.

Rest easy, Chief Anderson. Final alarm received.

— Tim Lorenz, RN, NRP | IronStar Peer Support & Resiliency

06/07/2026

Hey All, Nikki here-

Tim usually handles the posts on this page, as it should be. One of my firmest beliefs as a clinician is that I recognize when I am no longer the expert in the space and I stay well in my lane. This time, though, I wanted to lend my voice I solidarity.

Johnson Creek Fire & EMS has experienced the loss of one of their own. Tim shared IronStar’s sentiment and we stand firmly on that belief that however you experience this loss is what it needs to be.

As a clinician, I want to remind everyone that grief shouldn’t be pathologized. There’s nothing wrong with your mental wellness if you notice you’re numb, shut down, angry, or flat in the coming days and weeks - it means you’re human.

If you find that the loss is shaking your foundation to a level where you want additional support getting back on track, it’s what IronStar is built for. No diagnosis, no treatment plan, and no requirement to talk to me! Unless you want to, and then I’m available, too.

It is with a heavy heart that IronStar recognizes the passing of Assistant Chief Matthew Anderson of Johnson Creek Fire ...
06/07/2026

It is with a heavy heart that IronStar recognizes the passing of Assistant Chief Matthew Anderson of Johnson Creek Fire & EMS.
Matt was more than a title. He was a leader who showed up, a peer who carried his people, and a firefighter who gave years of his life to his community. He faced a battle off the job that most people never have to fight, and he did it the same way he did everything else — on his own terms, without surrendering his dignity or his identity.
I knew Matt personally. We worked together, and we shared more than a few things in common — including a cancer diagnosis around the same time. Mine went a different direction than his. That kind of thing leaves a mark. You don't take that lightly, and you don't forget the people who walked that road alongside you, even at a distance.
To the members of Johnson Creek Fire & EMS: what you're feeling right now is real, and it's appropriate. Grief after losing a leader and a colleague is not weakness — it is the cost of genuine connection. Let yourselves feel it. Look out for each other in the days and weeks ahead. The acute weight of loss doesn't lift on a schedule, and you don't have to pretend it does.
Rest easy, Chief. You led well.
— Tim Lorenz, RN, NRP, Co-Founder
IronStar Peer Support & Resiliency

June is Pride Month. And for LGBTQ+ first responders, that means navigating a job that's already high-stakes — inside cu...
06/06/2026

June is Pride Month. And for LGBTQ+ first responders, that means navigating a job that's already high-stakes — inside cultures that aren't always safe to be fully yourself in.
That's a weight that doesn't show up on any run report. But it's real, and it compounds.
IronStar is a judgment-free space. Period. If you need someone to talk to, we're here — whoever you are, whatever you're carrying.
📞 (920) 772-8711 | ironstarpeersupport.com

June is PTSD Awareness Month. I'm not going to sugarcoat it — PTSD in first responders isn't rare. It's occupational. Ne...
06/06/2026

June is PTSD Awareness Month. I'm not going to sugarcoat it — PTSD in first responders isn't rare. It's occupational. Nearly three decades in prehospital and critical care, and I can tell you: the job doesn't leave when you clock out.
What I can also tell you is this: it's not a character flaw. It's a nervous system that did exactly what it was supposed to do — and got stuck there.
If you're carrying something heavy right now, you don't have to figure that out alone. Reach out. We'll talk — peer to peer, no rank, no judgment.
📞 (920) 772-8711 | ironstarpeersupport.com

06/01/2026

IronStar Peer Support & Resiliency

Joint Statement | June 2026
On the Indiana EMT Assault Case — and What We Have to Say About It

By now, many of you have seen the news out of Indiana. An EMT with Quest Ambulance Service has been charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old patient during an interfacility transport — and allegedly used her Instagram account afterward to target a second child.
We’re not going to pretend this doesn’t hit differently when it happens inside a rig.
We believe survivors.
Coming forward is hard. Coming forward when the person who hurt you wore the same uniform the rest of us wear — that takes something most people can’t imagine. We believe her. We believe the second victim. Their courage in speaking matters, and it should not be minimized or complicated by what this profession means to us.
This is not a profession problem. It is a predator problem.
Predators exist in every field that offers access to vulnerable people — healthcare, education, law enforcement, EMS. The badge, the uniform, the patch — none of it creates a predator, and none of it should be used to shield one. What it can do is provide opportunity and cover, which is exactly why screening, oversight, and a culture that takes reports seriously are not optional. They are the job.
The Crivitz case is not isolated.
We’ve seen this closer to home. These are not distant, abstract events. They are a reminder that our communities — and our patients — deserve systems that are actually built to protect them, not just respond after the damage is done.
If you’re a first responder processing this and it’s stirring something — whether that’s anger, grief, a memory you haven’t dealt with, or just the weight of knowing the trust people place in us — that’s a real thing. You don’t have to carry it alone.
IronStar is here.

Tim Lorenz, RN, NRP, U.S. Army Combat Medic (Ret.), Peer Support Specialist
Co-Founder, IronStar Peer Support & Resiliency
Nikki Hensler Gordon, MS, MA, LPC, CCI, CCISM, EMDRIA Certified Therapist & Approved Consultant
Co-Founder, IronStar Peer Support & Resiliency
[email protected] | (920) 772-8711
414 E. Walnut St., Suite 140 | Green Bay, WI

DAY 6 — FRIDAY, MAY 23 — What We Build NextIt’s the last day of EMS Week. Here’s what I want to say before we go ba...
05/22/2026

DAY 6 — FRIDAY, MAY 23 — What We Build Next

It’s the last day of EMS Week. Here’s what I want to say before we go back to the regular noise: The men of Freedom House didn’t wait for the system to fix itself. They looked at a community that was being left to die and they built something. Most of them had nothing going for them on paper. Vietnam vets, unemployment, a city that had already written off the Hill District. They built it anyway. From the inside. For the people the system had discarded. That is still the job. Not the calls. The job. IronStar exists because prehospital medicine gave a lot of us the best years of our lives and the worst nights of our lives, and the people who were supposed to be there for us weren’t. We’re not here to replace that. We’re here to be what we needed when we needed it. If you’re struggling, reach out. If you know someone who is, be the peer. If you’re a chief or a director, call us. We know how to build this in a way that actually holds. Happy EMS Week. Now get back to work. — Tim Lorenz, RN, NRP | IronStar Peer Support & Resiliency [email protected] | (920) 277-8711 | ironstarpeersupport.com

The mental health community has a diagnosis for the pattern. I’m going to say something that will make some of you unco...
05/21/2026

The mental health community has a diagnosis for the pattern. I’m going to say something that will make some of you uncomfortable EMS presents. Not burnout. Not compassion fatigue. Something more structural. Something that explains why every wellness program lands and then gets expelled. Why the culture oscillates between “we’re warriors” and “we’re invisible.” Why the stoicism holds until it absolutely doesn’t. The pattern — identity instability, defensive rejection of help, self-destructive behavior, compartmentalization as the only emotional tool, chronic emptiness — maps, feature by feature, onto Borderline Personality Disorder at the organizational level. Before you close this: BPD is not weakness. It is what happens when someone — or a profession — develops under chronic trauma, without support, in a system that punishes emotional expression. It is a logical response to an untenable environment. And the thing about BPD is: the defense IS the wound. You can’t take it away without offering something else first. That’s what we’re here to build. — Tim | IronStar Peer Support & Resiliency

Day 4 — The Internal Wound — Here’s what nobody puts on the EMS Week graphic: We have some of the highest rates of PTSD...
05/20/2026

Day 4 — The Internal Wound — Here’s what nobody puts on the EMS Week graphic: We have some of the highest rates of PTSD, depression, substance abuse, and su***de in public safety. We have some of the lowest rates of help-seeking. We train providers to suppress everything on scene — because that’s the job, and that’s correct — and then we offer them absolutely nothing for the 72 hours afterward when the suppression stops working. Providers are leaving. Not retiring. Leaving. Leaving the field in their thirties and forties because the work is costing them things they can’t get back and the institution is asking them to keep paying. I’ve been in prehospital medicine for almost thirty years. I’ve watched this profession hurt its people quietly and then act surprised when they break. It is not a mystery. It is a choice. And it is a choice we are equipped to make differently. — Tim | IronStar Peer Support & Resiliency

We’re looking for **one EMS department** to serve as the **pilot site** for our **72-Hour Window Sentinel Event Response...
05/20/2026

We’re looking for **one EMS department** to serve as the **pilot site** for our **72-Hour Window Sentinel Event Response Training**.
This training is designed to support departments in the critical first 72 hours after a sentinel event, with practical guidance for leadership, peer support, and operational response.
We are offering the **initial pilot training at no cost** to one department in exchange for feedback and the opportunity to help shape this program before wider rollout.
We’re looking for a department that:
* values strong post-incident support
* is open to helping shape an important training resource for EMS
* can host the initial delivery
If your department may be interested, or if you know a chief, training officer, peer support lead, or EMS leader who may be a good fit, please send us a message.
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