Support and Advice for Family & Friends

Emergency service work is both rewarding and challenging. The rewards are plentiful and, together with the fulfilment that comes from serving the community, it can be intensely satisfying. Emergency service work is also tough as every day personnel are confronted by situations that are beyond what most people will ever experience. (DL Hine, Secretary DPFEM)

These situations, often known as Critical Events are any events that have a stressful impact sufficient to overwhelm an individual’s usual coping strategies. They may or may not have an impact on the mental health and wellbeing of the emergency service worker but as a family member, you are often the first people to notice changes in character or signs that they may be struggling. Hear from other emergency service workers about their lived experiences and how Wellbeing Support can help here.

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Answering the call - Beyond Blue’s National Mental Health and Wellbeing Study of Police and Emergency Services found that police and emergency services workers are more than twice as likely to experience high or very high rates of psychological distress compared to the general population. It also found many employees and volunteers have good mental health and wellbeing with more than half of all employees and two in three volunteers reporting high levels of resilience. However, employees who had worked more than 10 years were almost twice as likely to experience psychological distress and were six times more likely to experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The role of family and social supports in the mental health and wellbeing of police and emergency services personnel should not be underestimated. Answering the call found that social support was significantly associated with measures of positive wellbeing. Social support was also found to be associated with lower levels of suicidal thoughts. For example, roughly 20 per cent of employees with low social support reported suicidal thoughts in the past 12 months, compared with 4 per cent of employees with high social support.

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Support and Advice

Resources contained in this section of MyPulse are to help inform and provide advice for families and social supporters of emergency services workers. The ‘Guide for Families’ booklet, ‘Wellbeing Support Fact Sheets’ and ‘Stress, Trauma & You’ series below contain information to help you recognise the signs that someone may be struggling, why those signs are important and how you can help.

Wellbeing Support can also be contacted at any time for advice or to refer the emergency service worker you know for additional support.

Look after yourself

This may be the most important thing you can do in supporting your family member.
Supporting someone who has been exposed to traumatic events can take its toll, and if your own health is affected you may no longer be able to support them as effectively. It’s important to monitor your own health and wellbeing and seek help for yourself when needed. The ‘Guide for Families’ booklet is recommended reading to help you maintain the balance.

Seek Help

Providing support doesn’t have to be complicated – valuable support moments can be as simple as spending time together, listening and giving a hug. When the support need increases beyond your capacity however remember you are not their therapist.

You can provide support through empathy, assurance and encouragement and by acknowledging that getting better can be difficult because it may mean facing past memories of events that were trying to be forgotten.

Wellbeing Support can help provide the right support at the right time to all AT & DPFEM members and their families 24/7