A new resource to help “Blue Light” colleagues better support each other has been added to Health Education England elearning for healthcare (HEE elfh)’s MindEd programme.
Rates of distress and mental disorder in emergency services staff are known to be high. Collectively, “Blue Light” personnel and emergency responders have expressed a wish to be able to support each other better.
In response to this, Blue Light Services Building Staff Psychosocial Resilience and Wellbeing has been developed for professionals across all emergency services including ambulance, police, lifeboats, fire, search and rescue. The resource consists of 4 elearning sessions to help learners identify colleagues who are struggling and offer advice to better support one another and manage early distress.
The 4 sessions, which each take approximately 30 to 40 minutes to complete, cover the following topics:
- Caring for Blue Light Teams – An Organisation-wide Approach
- Supporting Your Colleagues Effectively
- Staying Mentally Well – Spotting Warning SignsEffective Conversations With Our Peers
- Effective Conversations With Our PeersThe sessions complement the existing Top Tips for Blue Light Staff which were developed earlier this year.
For more information and to access the sessions, please visit the Blue Light Services Building Staff Psychosocial Resilience and Wellbeing programme page.
MindEd is a free educational and training resource for mental health support. The variety of free resources aims to provide adults, across professions and organisations and including parents and carers, with the knowledge to support wellbeing, the understanding to identify young and older people at risk of a mental health condition and the confidence to act on their concern and, if needed, signpost to services that can help.
For more information about MindEd visit: https://www.minded.org.uk/.