Houston City Council member Abbie Kamin unveiled improvements made to the Office of Emergency Management's 911 decompression rooms during an Aug. 27 news conference.

What happened

​​​The 911 decompression rooms were installed in the Office of Emergency Management building in Houston when it was originally built in 2003. However, according to OEM officials, the rooms have seen little improvement since then.

Kamin said after finishing her work on passing the city's first prenatal and paid parental leave program, the decompression rooms were next on her list of priorities.

The approximately $8,000 in enhancements were funded by Kamin's office in coordination with the city's General Services Department. The upgrades unveiled to the two rooms include:
  • Painting the walls
  • New artwork
  • New furniture such as couches, tables and entertainment centers
  • The addition of stress balls and other wellness items
"Our 911 call takers are here for all of us when we are at our worst," Kamin said. "I don't know of anybody that can sit for hours taking the kind of calls they do and not have a place where they can go to take a breath, to practice self care, when you are under that kind of stress."


Why it matters

Kamin said the main function of the decompression rooms is to be a quiet place for 911 dispatchers and call takers to use after particularly stressful calls.

According to a study done by the National Institutes of Health in 2018, law enforcement communications professionals experience a number of the same stressors as police officers on patrol. In a sample of 758,911 communications workers:
  • 83% were found to be either overweight or obese, according to the NIH. By comparison, roughly 74% of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
  • 24% suffered from depressive symptoms
  • Up to one fourth of workers met the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder
City officials and emergency management personnel also said during the Aug. 27 news conference that 911 call takers and dispatchers are severely understaffed with many employees working 12-hour shifts.

Something to note


Larry Satterwhite—Houston's director of public safety and homeland security who also served as the city's police chief on an interim basis—said the shortage only adds to the stress placed on 911 operators.

"We talk about how short the police department is, but our team over here with the 911 dispatchers and call takers is very short here, too," he said. "Yet, the men and women show up everyday and they take these calls and they are taking some of the worst calls you can think of. They are truly the first, first responders, ... and I don't think people understand what they go through everyday."