UCF RESTORES today unveiled its groundbreaking Resiliency Command Center — a first-of-its-kind mobile behavioral health facility designed to provide a safe environment for evidence-based behavioral health care to first responders at the scenes of crises, including natural disasters, mass casualty events and line-of-duty tragedies.
Supported by the Florida Legislature, the Florida Division of State Fire Marshal, Lockheed Martin and UCF, the mobile command center is equipped to deliver trauma-informed care and mental health resources to emergency responders statewide. The unit includes private consultation rooms and staff quarters, ensuring clinicians can provide care in a safe, confidential environment at the heart of emergency response operations.
Since 2019 UCF RESTORES has dedicated nearly 900 hours of crisis response support to more than 50 of Florida’s most devastating events, including the Surfside building collapse and the state’s most catastrophic hurricanes. Pegasus Professor of Psychology Deborah Beidel is executive director of the program.
UCF RESTORES provides clinical treatment services to first responders, front-line medical personnel, military veterans, active-duty military personnel, and survivors of mass violence and natural disasters — helping them overcome trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder and lead fulfilling careers and family lives. The program’s innovative therapy includes elements of virtual reality, with treatment success rates far exceeding the national average.
As part of Florida’s State Emergency Response Plan’s (SERP) Mental Wellness Incident Management Team, UCF RESTORES’ licensed clinicians are among the first on the ground when tragedy strikes. Until now, the team has provided psychological first aid in borrowed, makeshift spaces, lacking the structure and privacy necessary for effective care.
The all-new Resiliency Command Center addresses this gap, creating a controlled, trauma-informed environment for emergency response clinicians to meet first responders where they are — at the frontlines of crisis.
During the event UCF President Alexander N. Cartwright thanked state Sen. Tom Wright and state Rep. David Smith for their “unwavering support and advocacy for this program.” He acknowledged Lockheed Martin for their collaboration with UCF RESTORES and their partnerships across many other areas of UCF.
“We are also immensely grateful to our first responders and emergency response agencies who bravely run towards critical emergencies,” UCF President Alexander N. Cartwright says. “Today marks a significant step forward in mental health care for first responders and trauma survivors. Through groundbreaking research and cutting-edge innovation, UCF RESTORES has helped thousands of individuals across our state, providing critical support to those in need, proving again that UCF rises to every occasion, faces challenges head on and develops solutions that drive real-world impact.”
“After Champlain Towers collapsed, UCF RESTORES deployed alongside the State Fire Marshal team with mental health support for search and rescue teams,” Wright says. “These experiences revealed the lack of secure space to support our emergency personnel to do their work. The command center will close that gap. It will provide confidential treatment, space in the aftermath of disasters and help to strengthen our first responders as they go about the heroic work.”
“I spent my career in the U.S. Marine Corps, retired as a colonel. I’m one of the few combat veterans serving in the Legislature today, so I understand the visible and unseen wounds of war and the trauma our first responders deal with,” Smith says. “That’s why I was happy to support an appropriation of state funding for the UCF RESTORES Resiliency Command Center. Whether it’s the Surfside collapse or other tragedies that might strike Florida, we need these on-site, real-time assets available for our first responders.”
“Today, we celebrate the inauguration and unveiling of a mental health command trailer for the UCF RESTORES program, a project born from a shared commitment to the well-being of our first responders,” Florida Division of State Fire Marshal Director JoAnne Rice says. “For me, it has been an absolute honor to work alongside Dr. Beidel and her devoted team, as well as Deputy Executive Director Dr. [Kellie] O’Dare and Second Alarm Project on this project and so many others. Your passion and your dedication inspire me every day. Over the years, we’ve built an incredible partnership with this team, especially during hurricanes, providing essential behavioral health and resources when and where they are needed. Together, we’ve created peer support programs and clinician awareness initiatives that speak directly to the unique challenges faced by firefighters and first responders.”
“[UCF RESTORES] chose to be the rescuers for us [first responders] and that is the most humbling experience that as a first responder we could ever be embraced by,” Indian River Fire Rescue Firefighter Engineer Lt. Dustin Hawkins says. “You created a beacon and a light, purpose built, thoughtfully and intelligently designed, to fill all the voids in the fields and prevent our members from having yet again another, ‘we regret to inform you knock on the door.’ ”
Beidel expressed her gratitude to the Florida Legislature, Lockheed Martin, Rice and the first responder community for their support in bringing UCF RESTORES’ vision to life.
“We sincerely hope this unit is never needed, but the reality is that catastrophic events are beyond our control,” Beidel says. “What we can control is how we respond. With the UCF RESTORES Resiliency Command Center, we’re ensuring that when disaster strikes, the men and women who run toward danger have the resources they need for optimal physical and mental wellness.”
