Mental health and emergency services

Presented on: 8 October, 16:00 CEST

To celebrate the World Mental Health, which takes place on October 10th, we decided to organise this webinar to raise awareness of the importance of mental health for emergency services and help ensure that organisations and individuals have the tools to address problems they may face. A lot of our community are frontline emergency workers and we feel it is extremely important to promote this issue to protect their well-being, who work so hard to save lives.

This is why we have asked the three experts: Andrew Berrie from Mind UK, Monica Million from NENA and Cindy Sparrow from APCO Canada, to join and present their views on the following topics/questions:

• How and with which methods do different programmes/tools help the emergency services community improve their mental health?
• What are the recommendations for organisations who want to ensure their staff’s well-being?
• How to protect the mental health of individuals working in emergency response rooms that have to deal with lots of stress, pressure and emotions on a daily basis?

presented by

Andrew Berrie

Head of Workplace Wellbeing Programmes (Delivery), Mind UK

Between 2015 and 2019, Mind delivered an ambitious and comprehensive programme of activity aimed at reducing stigma, promoting wellbeing and improving mental health support for those working or volunteering in ambulance, fire, police and search and rescue services in England and Wales. In this presentation, Andrew discussed the impact of the programme in supporting the mental health of emergency responders and Mind’s recommendations for these organisations in creating mentally healthy workplaces.

Monica Million

Executive Director at Colorado 9-1-1 Resource Center and Immediate Past President, NENA

During the current pandemic, high impact events such as acts of terrorism, natural disasters or house fires are affecting even more the mental health of emergency personnel and are exasperating the problem of isolation. Monica presented the tools and resources that can improve physical and mental wellbeing of emergency professionals and help them build their resilience and encourage balance in their lives.

2020 Portraits for the Women Of Excellence Awards in Central Albera. www.karmenmeyer.ca

Cindy Sparrow

Immediate Past President, APCO Canada & Author of BAPCO White Paper 'Solitude, Suffering & Stress’

People who answer emergency calls, render lifesaving assistance, and deploy emergency resources to a scene are routinely exposed to trauma through their day-to-day duties. Cindy presented the British APCO white paper series on the mental health pandemic impacting public safety communications professionals, including the causes and the call to action that our industry and government leaders must answer to address it.

EENA