https://www.dailymercury.com.au/news/mental-health-spike-challenges-emergency-services/3900111/ WHEN an emergency service responder goes to a job, they are aware a confronting scene may await them. Sometimes, all the preparation in the world can’t prepare them for the impact it could have. A job for Volunteer Marine Rescue Mackay skipper Charles Linsley and his crew can quickly change from a search and rescue to a recovery mission. With that comes traumatic and heartbreaking scenes. Mr Linsley has openly discussed his own mental health challenges in the past, and uses his lived experiences to educate emergency responders on managing their welfare. But sometimes preparation for what may confront them is not enough. What Mr Linsley says is important is for people to know their feelings are normal and need to be discussed. The challenge is also in getting someone “back on the vessel”. “Sometimes, with all the preparation in the world, people will still react in different ways,” he said.
“But we are aware of that and we educate our volunteers on what kind of responses they may be likely to encounter themselves. “So if they do feel distressed, or angry, or whatever they already know before they get there that’s a perfectly normal reaction to have. “For the untrained person exposed to a situation like that, their reactions can be quite different. “They get very frightened because it has never happened to them before, they don’t know what it is that’s happening to them and don’t understand that the way they’re feeling is perfectly normal.” The onset of mental illness can come from a variety of factors — such as the continuous strain of the job or one instance that can damage a person’s wellbeing. It is a trigger moment that can be different for each individual. Often it is not just the professional scenario, but the personal background going into a situation. There is no distinction between ‘professional you’ and ‘personal you’ – the two sides correlate and impact each aspect of life. “One of the things that happens is that often people will go to many traumatic situations and they’ll be fine,” Mr Linsley said. “But then they’ll go to a job that appears very straight forward and just hit the wall. That will really take them aback because they’ll say, ‘why did that happen to me?’ “Sometimes it’s when people come back and they start to think about it that it starts to impact on them a bit. “For some people (it might happen) fairly quickly … you can do a lot of really intensive activations or accident scenes, but it will take one incident to tip somebody with their mental health issues. For others, it will come on more slowly and accumulatively.” Mr Linsley educates emergency responders in how to manage their mental health on the job. The main point is clear — whatever you are feeling is perfectly natural. While some techniques, such as mock rescue and salvaging situations using mannequins, help in preparation before a job, he said discussing issues and concerns was paramount. For more information on Mr Linsley’s mental health first aid courses email [email protected]. If you need support, phone Lifeline on 13 11 14. Research highlights issues for emergency responders THE inability to openly disclose emotional trauma has long been a barrier in managing mental illness, and emergency services are no different. In fact, it may be worse still. A Beyond Blue study conducted from October 2017 to March 2018 revealed the added potential of mental illness compared to the general public. Answering the Call surveyed 21,014 individuals and identified 61 per cent avoided telling people about their mental health condition. It also stated emergency employees and volunteers reported having suicidal thoughts more than two times higher than the average among Australian adults.
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AuthorWith instances of suicide and mental illness increasing at Christmas time, I pitched a series of a page each day for a week covering a variety of mental health issues ArchivesCategories |