The organization operates from a restored firehouse in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and provides individual counseling, the peer support of the Aaron Clark Peer Support Team (which draws on the principle that shared professional experience facilitates trust in a counseling context), and group wellness programming. It serves active and retired FDNY members and their families.
Buscemi’s role on the Board of Advisors is a governance and advocacy role, not a clinical one. He does not provide therapy. He brings to the board his professional profile, his former-firefighter standing, and his sustained engagement with the department’s community — all of which are useful to an organization that depends on visibility and fundraising to maintain its programs.
The broader context of mental health support for first responders has expanded significantly since 2001, both in the FDNY specifically and in the emergency services more generally. Programs have proliferated, research has documented the extent of the need, and the cultural stigma against seeking help, while not eliminated, has been somewhat reduced. The FDNY has its own employee assistance program. The World Trade Center Health Program includes mental health monitoring and treatment as a standard component of its services — more than 22,000 of its members had certified mental health conditions as of March 2024, with PTSD the most common single diagnosis.
The question of whether Buscemi himself has received professional support for what he experienced at Ground Zero is one he has addressed partly. He mentioned, in his TIME account, that he was already in therapy when September 11 happened, and that having a professional to process his feelings with was a consolation in the aftermath. He has described experiencing PTSD in subsequent interviews. He has attributed these descriptions to himself and dated them. Beyond that, the details of his mental health are his own, as they should be.