As a profession, First Responders and those in the Military are already at an increased risk of Post-Traumatic Stress disorder (PTSd), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), General Anxiety disorder (GAd), and an array of physical injuries. This is based on their physically demanding jobs and the increased chances of being exposed to a variety of traumatic events, ranging from combat, officer involved shootings, homicides, having to respond to traffic fatalities, and fighting fires. Often these experiences leave them with both physical injuries and emotional scars. Those who have experienced these traumatic events often have nightmares, flashbacks, difficulty sleeping, and feeling emotionally numb. SCUBA diving has been proven to be ideal in helping people rehabilitate from some of those physical injuries and emotional scars. Once approved though our application process, our program is designed to be free to the primary applicant.
OUR STORY
I guess this all started in 2015 when Dive Guardians’ founder, Randy Lung first began working with disabled veterans using SCUBA diving and the therapeutic effects of water to help them with both their physical and mental injuries. You see, Randy had been a SCUBA diver for many years and knew, first hand, of those therapeutic effects.
Well, in addition to being a Reconnaissance Marine and Desert Storm Veteran, Randy is also a 25-year veteran of Law Enforcement. During his time in law enforcement, he witnessed the negative effects that experiencing repeated traumatic events over a career has on a person. Randy has seen many brothers and sisters develop drug and alcohol problems, become both suspects and victims of domestic violence, and suffer from depression. Randy also heard of more than one first responder who had chosen to take their life due to depression and Post Traumatic Stress (PTS). Then, in 2016, a fellow first responder and Randy’s friend, committed suicide due to a long battle with PTS and depression.
When Randy’s friend took his life, he left behind, not only his friends, but a wife, three kids and a new grandbaby. The part that bothered Randy was, at the time, he was teaching about resilience, PTS. and using Scuba Diving to help our Military Veterans. Yet, he never realized his friend was having issues because, at the time, his main focus was on the Veterans. Randy often asked himself, had he been more aware, could he have prevented his friends’ suicide on that day!
It was at that time Randy began to shift his focus and began to search for organizations designed specifically to help our First responders. Randy didn’t have to search long before he realized there were not many organizations out there with this specific mission. While conducting his research and speaking with people, Randy learned that thankfully, there are many organizations out there designed to help our war heroes and military veterans. But when it came to our first responders and local heroes, people often didn’t realize that they also develop and experience PTS, depression, anxiety, and have a wide array of physical disabilities. Randy still thought about his friend a lot and he decided he never wanted feel again that he missed an opportunity to help stop someone like his friend, from committing suicide. So, in March, 2018, Dive Guardians was born.
