BOONE, N.C. — Saralynn Brown is an embedded mental health clinician for Responder Support Services in Boone.

"It is a population that if I didn't work with them, I felt like I would have had regrets," Brown said.

Brown was a dispatcher in Caldwell County for five years. Her father, brother and husband are all first responders.

"If they experienced something critical from being on scene, I've experienced something similar form being on the phone when I was in dispatch. If their family is struggling, it's most likely I can have empathy because I have also had struggles as a family member," she said.

She says they are working to get rid of the stigma of getting help and opening their doors for any first responder who needs it. They have an emergency line and provide telehealth or in-person services for anyone who comes up the mountain.

"What they experience on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis is what some people don't experience in their entire lifetimes," Brown said.

She goes on ride-alongs with different departments to make her presence known because she says especially now with it being three years since deputies were killed in the line of duty in Watauga County and four law enforcement officers were killed in Charlotte on April 29, people need help.

"This has escalated the need for support, but the need for support was always present," she said.

The Responder Wellness Coalition has also started recently in Boone with a "Got Your Six" program to help first responders pay for mental health services.

"Removing that barrier of the stigma or of just the fear of what somebody you work with will think could be very huge and lifesaving," Brown said.