LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The city of Louisville has hired a behavioral mental health specialist for city employees, including first responders such as firefighters, dispatchers and EMS staff.

Steven Kelsey meets with first responders to work through challenges or a traumatic experience. Kelsey is a retired Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officer.

“As a first responder, there are no commercials,” said Kelsey. “Nobody’s writing your episode. This is real life. And so a lot of them, for the first time, really had experienced something traumatic. They didn’t know how to cope with it, didn’t know how to set it aside.”

Kelsey started the job in July, three months after two deadly mass shootings in Louisville.

Since then, he has met with about a dozen EMS workers who responded to the shooting at Old National Bank and two of the police officers who helped LMPD Officer Nickolas Wilt after he was wounded, he said.

“We do one of the treatment modalities called exposure therapy,” said Kelsey. “We allow them to talk about and express what they actually went through so they can replay it in their mind and begin to have some positive thinking. And I always teach them, ‘You survived."‘ And a lot of them have survivor’s guilt. Some have said, ‘I could have done more, wish I could have arrived early,’ but life happens. All of us experience trauma on a daily basis. It’s how you deal with it.”

Kelsey, who has a degree in psychology, got into the field because of what he experienced in his 25 years on the police force, he said.

He also works as a fire and police chaplain.

His message to anyone who might be struggling is that it’s okay not to be okay.

“Just don’t stay that way,” said Kelsey. “Seek some help because mental health is real.”

The new position was approved with bipartisan support by the Metro Council, according to the city.