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In celebration of 80 years, of The Fire Fighters Charity is tackling the mental health challenges across the fire services community and ensuring that proactive support is available is essential.
Stress is something almost all of us will have experienced at some point – if not multiple points – in our lives. But it can also be unpredictable and impact all of us in vastly different ways.
In the last two years, stress, anxiety and depression have been the most common reasons why people have reached out to The Fire Fighters Charity for mental health support. In fact, the charity has seen a 26 per cent increase in demand for mental health support in the last year alone.
Increased need
“This sharp increase could be due to any number of factors such as the cost of living pressures on relationships and finances, decreasing accessibility to NHS and community support services, or lack of specialist services to support neurodiversity. It could, of course, also be down to an increased awareness of mental health challenges across the fire services community and the need to reach out for support when facing such challenges, which is a really positive step forward.”
Jane Rosso, Psychological Services Lead, The Fire Fighters Charity.
Identifying and coping with stress as early as possible is therefore essential and will have a positive impact on the wellbeing of all fire personnel, so they can, in turn, continue to protect their communities to the best of their abilities.
Evolving health and wellbeing support
We have developed its proactive health and wellbeing services hugely in recent years, in order to provide as many resources as possible to its beneficiaries.
Celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2023, the charity has come a long way in the decades since it was first formed to support the orphaned families of firefighters killed during the Blitz. The establishment of its psychological services in 2013, is just one of many important milestone moments in the continuous development of its diverse services.
Today, this ongoing development continues and here are just a few of the mental health resources available to the UK’s fire services community through the modern-day charity.
Hope: an online mental wellbeing programme
The Fire Fighters Charity works in partnership with social enterprise Hope for the Community on its online Hope Programmes, which are focused on combating stress and anxiety. The free, six-week online group self-management programmes help participants to feel more in control and resilient. Each week they cover topics like: managing stress, smarter goal setting, eating well, coping with fatigue, practising mindfulness, communication and relationships.
The programmes, which can be taken completely at your own pace, can be accessed from PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone and participants are supported throughout by trained facilitators. They are ideally suited to those living with stress and anxiety over the age of 18.
Online resources and workshops via My Fire Fighters Charity
My Fire Fighters Charity is the charity’s app, specifically dedicated to the fire services community. It offers a wealth of exclusive health and wellbeing content, dedicated groups for you to chat to like-minded others, and the opportunity to access support.
My Fire Fighters Charity has a fantastic library of interactive health and wellbeing workshops, resources and tools in a dedicated Wellbeing Hub. With three levels of information and support, from bitesize resources through to six-week self-directed courses, the Hub covers topics on everything from alcohol, gambling and anxiety to menopause and debt.
Fire and rescue service wellness coaching
The charity offers a range of health and wellness workshops which are delivered directly to specific fire and rescue services in the workplace, either virtually or face-to-face. A team of Wellness and Behaviour Change Coaches work with fire and rescue service wellbeing teams to understand employees’ needs, before developing a programme of support for them.
Workshops cover everything from developing resilience to improving sleep, mindfulness and managing stress. These sessions are arranged directly with fire and rescue service wellbeing teams.
The Reset programme
The charity also has face-to-face support programmes available to those it feels would benefit best from them.Its Reset Programme, hosted at Harcombe House in Devon. Reset offers you the opportunity to develop and improve your resilience and overall mental fitness, with a programme of workshops and activities tailored to your individual needs.
The programme offers a relaxing environment for you to escape the pressures of day-to-day life, so that you have the space and time to focus on improving your overall wellbeing.
How your business can get behind Gee
We rely on kind-hearted donors to continue offering its vital support to beneficiaries and corporate partners are a huge part of that. By supporting the charity, your business would be directly funding life-changing mental health support for people like Gee Smith.
Gee, a firefighter with Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service, began struggling with stress and anxiety a few years ago, but initially tried to hide it round his friends and colleagues.
“At its worst point, I’d go into work with my mask on, being the noisy bloke that runs around the station. No-one had any idea because I hid it. I’d be there being a loud-mouth and laughing and joking, then I’d go home and be crying.”
He reached out to the charity to see how it might be able to help him and he was immediately offered a stay at Harcombe House, one of the charity’s three centres, on a face-to-face Reset Programme, aimed at improving people’s resilience and mental fitness.
“It felt like a reset, I was out in the lovely countryside and while things were still happening back at home, it felt distant because I wasn’t there. We did group sessions covering everything, walks to Tai Chi. I left there feeling hopeful.”
You can read Gee’s full story here.
This is part of our series commemorating the 80th anniversary of The Fire Fighters Charity. To learn more, see ‘The Fire Fighters Charity at 80.’
To read similar articles, see our People and Skills channel.
