As part of Lancashire Fire and Rescue Services ongoing commitment to support the health and wellbeing of its staff, they are leading the way in Lancashire by committing to offer full workforce training around raising awareness of signs of poor mental health and developing coping strategies to improve and manage emotional wellbeing.
Utilising the services of Lancashire Mind, Lancashire Fire and Rescue aims to train all of its 1206 fire fighters and support staff across the county including its new recruits in learning about the importance of building resilience and managing personal emotional wellbeing.
According to Mind, Blue light services have an increased risk of poor mental health than the general population. Lancashire Fire and Rescue have already signed the Time To Change Employer Pledge to show their commitment to change how they think and act about mental health in the workplace and make sure that employees who are facing these problems are supported. According to Time To Change one in four workers across all professions in the UK are experiencing stress, anxiety and depression in the workplace each year costing on average £1,035 per employee per year. “Signing the Time to Change Pledge was the culmination of a longstanding commitment within Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service to ensure that all aspects of our employees’ welfare, mind as well as bodily health and fitness, are a major priority for us. In turn, this enables us to make sure that the essential life-saving service to the public continues to be delivered to the highest standards, 24/7 and wellbeing training is another element of the support we are providing in association with Lancashire Mind.” Chris Kenny, Chief Fire Officer, Lancashire Fire & Rescue.
Raising awareness of this issues across Lancashire is leading mental health charity, Lancashire Mind. The charity currently offers three types of workplace workshops delivered by expert training coordinators. Employers can choose from Resilience Training, Mental Wellbeing and Mental Health Awareness workshops. Each workshop is different and promises to provide employers with practical skills to action plans, that will help the whole workplace flourish, enable them to deliver consistent approach to managing mental wellbeing, so people feel supported and thrive, and general awareness. Training is available to all employers across Lancashire, no matter how big or small an organisation is.
Lancashire Mind CEO Stewart Lucas said “We are very good at teaching people how to avoid physical harm in the workplace but we do very little on how to stay mentally well. I can’t stress enough what a major ground breaking commitment this is by Lancashire Fire and Rescue as they are now leading the way in supporting their employees to be mentally well and stay mentally well.
“Our Training at Work offer provides employers with an invaluable opportunity to improve mental wellbeing for their employees. Feedback from local employers, who have undertaken the training, has been overwhelming positive. We are being told that the changes being implemented after the training sessions are having a big impact on staff wellbeing and the workplace environment. We hope that more employers will come forward and take advantage of the training on offer so we can help more people across the country to build and continue to achieve mental wellbeing in the work place.”
