First responders are those who are first on the scene to an emergency, to deliver assistance in often time-critical and life-threatening situations, they include:
- personnel (employees and volunteers) of NSW emergency services organisations, and
- employees of National Parks and Wildlife Service, Forestry Corporation of NSW and Transport for NSW whose employment requires them to respond to the same critical incidents as emergency services personnel.
The nature of emergency work means workers are regularly exposed to traumatic situations and they are among the most at-risk occupations for work-related mental health disorders
The new strategy sets out fifteen priority actions that agencies are implementing to improve the mental health and wellbeing of these workers and help them to better manage the psychological challenges associated with their vital work.
As part of the initial phase of this strategy, the NSW Government is taking immediate action to introduce the following measures:
- Psychological First Aid (PFA) Training: The agencies will be required to implement PFA training for all employees, including managers. This training aims to better support individuals impacted by emergencies, disasters, or traumatic events by connecting them to appropriate support services.
- Referral to Clinical Care: Employees impacted by traumatic incidents will receive referrals to timely and appropriate clinical care, ensuring they have access to the necessary resources to address their mental health needs.
- Peer-Support Services: The strategy includes the establishment of a peer-support service that is informed by evidence-based, trauma-informed training programs tailored to the specific needs of first responders. These services will incorporate the principles of PFA to provide ongoing support.
Guiding Principles
The Strategy is underpinned by the following principles:
- Mental health services and supports are designed with a ‘whole-of-person’ approach.
- Access to services and supports are fair and equitable.
- Effective mental health services and supports are person-centred and informed by the lived experience of first responders.
- Mental health services and supports should be evidence-based or evidence-informed.
- Effective mental health support in the workplace, the promotion of positive mental health and effective return-to-work requires supportive and capable leadership.
- Mental health services and supports implemented under this Strategy should be evaluated for effectiveness.
- Inter-organisation cooperation and collaboration is supported and promoted.
Strategic Objectives
The Strategy identifies five strategic objectives to guide first responder organisations to ensure policies and practices effectively support the mental health and wellbeing of their personnel.
These are aligned to the areas Black Dog Institute has identified as being where action should be focused to support first responder mental health and wellbeing:
- Protect: Protect first responders from psychosocial risks and hazards
- Promote: Promote and enable early help seeking and support
- Respond: Respond following a critical/traumatic event
- Recover: Facilitate recovery where psychological injury/illness occurs
- Enable: Strengthen collaboration, research and knowledge management
Each first responder organisation needs to manage different risks for their personnel depending on their role, location and frequency and severity of exposure. These strategic objectives have been identified to focus on common elements across the sector, in areas that are relevant and critical for all first responder organisations.
