New foundation helps those who help us
The Australian First Responder Foundation has a vision of a world with responsive and mentally healthy first responders. To support this, the AFRF is delivering three-day early-intervention retreats for emergency first responders that allow participants to Reconnect, Reframe and Reset.
By Louise Murphy, founder of the Australian First Responder Foundation
The Australian First Responder Foundation (AFRF) was founded in Wollongong on World Mental Health Day in October 2020.
It has its origins in a Winston Churchill Fellowship that I completed in 2019-2020. The fellowship sought to investigate the international best practices for delivering Peer Support programs to emergency first responders.
The passion behind this journey was my many years of volunteering as a first responder with St John Ambulance NSW and my role in developing the statewide peer support program to support first aid volunteers, who were often being exposed to critical and challenging events.
These volunteers are likely to be community-minded people looking to give back through their first aid contributions. What was also known before the Churchill Fellowship journey through the UK, Canada and the US was that every 4.3 weeks in Australia an emergency first responder commits suicide. In Australia today, there are more than 380,000 emergency first responders, and 240,000 of these are volunteers.
The Australian First Responder Foundation has a vision of a world with responsive and mentally healthy first responders. To support this, the AFRF is delivering three-day early-intervention retreats for emergency first responders that allow participants to Reconnect, Reframe and Reset.
The retreats are based on the principles of Peer Support researched across police, fire and ambulance services in my report, and provide psychological first aid knowledge and skills that will provide emergency first responders with greater opportunities to reduce the negative impact on their mental health that the challenges of their roles might bring.
Experienced mental health practitioners, senior academic staff and experts in recreational and psychological interventions will deliver the activities. Importantly, these leaders will be first responders who understand the challenges of being a first responder, whether that be ambulance, surf life saving, fire services, marine rescue or policing.
Having reconnected, reframed and reset, participants will be better equipped to advance peer support principles back in their workplaces and reduce the tragic impacts of mental ill-health.
Being local to the Illawarra, we want our community to help us to look after those who care for the community. Ways to do this are through donations, partnerships or becoming a member.
Donate directly through the Australian First Responder Facebook page today. For every $10,000 raised, the AFRF can provide 15 emergency first responders with the opportunity to participate in a three-day retreat.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Louise Murphy is on a mission to raise awareness of the mental and emotional health challenges faced by our emergency first responder volunteers. The founder of the Australian First Responder Foundation, Louise is Principal Nurse Educator (Mental Health Services) at the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District. A committed volunteer since the age of 16, Louise is the NSW Peer Support Program Lead for St John Ambulance (NSW).
