Keith Hanks (Overcoming Grief, Emergency Medicine and Advocacy) - Episode 1038

Keith Hanks is a retired Firefighter and EMT that dedicated 21 years of his life to the service of others. He serviced his community as a firefighter, EMT, certified educator and training officer along with fire prevention and code enforcement. Keith worked both inner-city EMS as well as municipal fire. Like many in the first responder community the job has its cost. From childhood trauma and sexual abuse, traumatic calls, the tragic passing of his first wife, Keith has faced many trials and tragedies that resulted in self-harm, substance abuse, lies and multiple suicide attempts. After decades of damage Keith began to put the pieces of his life back together.

Keith was diagnosed with Complex PTSD in 2015. The job, the service, his dedication caused this injury, and consequently his retirement. What PTS didn’t change was the love and devotion to his community and to his fellow first responders. Keith has since dedicated his life to advocating for mental illness, substance and alcohol abuse recovery, and suicide awareness. Since starting this mission Keith built an international support group through Facebook for First Responders and Veterans for PTSI and other job-related mental health issues.

Keith was asked to be a part of the Deconstructing Stigma Project and has a Billboard that hangs in the International Terminal at Logan Airport in Boston MA, along with the Manchester Regional Airport. In March 2022 he completed the filming of his 1st feature length documentary focusing on PTSD in the first responder community titled First Responders in Crisis and has since been featured in two other related documentaries. Keith is an international speaker/podcast personality, and published author. He is a contributing author at Fire Engineering, Firefighter Nation, The Volunteer Firefighter, Crackyl, and Smoke Showin’ magazines/forums. He also wrote a featured chapter in the ongoing Amazon best-selling series Scars to Stars Volume 3.

He is known for saying that his life goal is to reduce suicide in the first responder community through education, support resources and to make it OK to reach out for help. In 2023, he launched his own LLC, Traumatic Strength, with its mission to bring proactive education, training, and action to combat the stigma on mental health. In June 2024, Keith released his first book, Allen, which tells the tragedies and triumphs throughout his life and how resilience was what led him to ultimate victory. He resides in New Hampshire with his wife and is the proud father to three incredible children.