World Mental Health day focuses on traumatic events

Today is World Mental Health Day. But how much do you think about your mental health?

The theme for this year’s World Mental Health Day is psychological first aid, and here at the ambulance service we provide this every day for our patients experiencing a crisis – but we also need to consider our own mental health as regularly.

We provide the right support to a patient experiencing the stress of a traumatic event, but the Trust is also committed to providing the right support to you, whatever your position in the organisation.

A Trust hub is being developed to cover all of your wellbeing needs, physical, psychological and social and to provide assistance when you need it. You can call or email the hub and be signposted to the appropriate service, support or information. It is designed to be a confidential, one stop shop and will be fully launched by the end of this year. Support is available now though, so call 01234 243092 or email wellbeing@eastamb.nhs.uk for more information. 

There is specific support for emergency services staff, via Mind’s Blue Light programme, which launched last year. The programme offers a resilience course, webinars, training courses and an infoline which is open Monday to Friday 9am – 6pm and available via telephone 0300 303 5999 (local rates), email bluelightinfo@mind.org.uk and text  84999. It is also for volunteers and the families of emergency services staff. For more information, visit the Blue Light website.

For frontline staff who are experiencing post-traumatic incident stress, there is also the trauma risk management (TRiM) service.  This is an evidence-based method, which will give you access to a TRiM practitioner, who will help to process your thoughts and reaction to the traumatic event. For a referral form and more information on the service, please visit East24.

It is important to think about your mental health, not just on World Mental Health day but all year-round. It can be very hard to make the first step in seeking help for a mental health issue but doing so may really help.

You can get involved in World Mental Health Day by joining the conversation online using #WMHD16. During the day, tips on how to support yourself will be published via a series of blogs and personal stories, and if you have something you’d like to share, please contact Debra Winterson, our Health & Wellbeing Manager, at wellbeing@eastamb.nhs.uk.

Published 10th October, 2016