Hardworking caregivers and first responders are exposed to the most stressful situations in anyone’s life — domestic violence, addiction and abuse issues, terminal illness — over and over again.

So they definitely need a little self care themselves once in a while.

That’s the message of “Heal the Healers,” an event focused on mental health for caregivers held at the Southcoast Behavioral Health center in North Dartmouth on Friday morning.

And the message seems to be resonating.

More than 170 first responders and professional caregivers came out to meet other care specialists over coffee and food and listen to a handful of speakers on wellness and trauma recovery.

Katlyn Auty, Director of Business Development at Southcoast Behavioral and member of the Mental Health Providers Network, said that this was the event’s third year.

“We have grown tremendously over the last three years,” she said. “We wanted to do something to recognize first responders, social workers, nurses, and essentially the idea of healing the healers came to be.”

She added, “It just really shows that there’s such a need in our area for everyone to kind of take a minute to recognize the hard work we do every day, to support one another and have a little fun.”

Over a dozen sponsors and vendors — including organizations focused on suicide prevention, care for seniors and the disabled, and addiction treatment — lined the walls, raising awareness of resources available for clients in need.

There was also a massage and reiki station as well as a variety of refreshments.

Community services rep Micaela Kennedy from AdCare, which provides local recovery services for drug and alcohol addiction, said it was her first time at the event. 

“I love it, it’s great,” she commented. “Having all of these resources in the community come together and really support this workforce...It’s been nice meeting a lot of the people that have direct care with our patients.”

Matt Butler, community liaison with New Bedford-based Caregiver Homes, agreed.

“It’s a great event...It’s a really good place to meet caregivers, first responders, professionals, and [get] a lot of information around caregiving and self care,” he said, adding “And a place to share resources. So it’s a great place to be.”

Almost everyone at the event, however, was listening — and laughing — as Charity Bell spoke to a packed house about mental health, the brain, and the stresses on care workers.

Bell, Director of Learning and Development for the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, works with foster children across the state.

She has also worked as a midwife in Africa and with drug addicted newborns for a child welfare organization.

Although her message was serious, Bell managed to earn plenty of laughs — like when she compared the teenage brain to having 99 appliances plugged in to an extension cord from the dollar store.

But she had plenty of advice for her listeners too.

“The first thing we need to do for people is to make them feel safe,” she said. “Because [if they don’t], they can’t learn, they can’t grow, they can’t make good decisions.”

Bell also noted that stressed-out caregivers may not react well to stressful situations.

“So how do you make good decisions under stress?” she asked, before answering simply, “You can’t.”

According to Bell, self care for mental health and care professionals will result in better outcomes for their patients — as well as for themselves.

“Take care of one another, be aware of what one another needs,” she said. “Because the hardest thing for us to do as nurturers is to be aware of our own needs. And one of the things we’re best at is being aware of the needs of others.”