We know that emergency responders have faced additional challenges to their mental health as a result of the pandemic and we want to make sure everyone working in the ambulance, police or fire services has access to advice and support.
Our Blue Light Programme is here to support the mental health of emergency responders in England and Wales. Building on our 4 years of experience supporting the mental health of emergency responders, we will provide information and support throughout the coronavirus pandemic and beyond.
The latest programme will launch in April 2021. If you need help to manage your mental health now, Our Frontline provides round‐the‐clock support. You can also find advice and information at mind.org.uk/bluelight
Funded by the Royal Foundation, we will be working with the emergency services community, including The Ambulance Staff Charity, Police Care UK and The Fire Fighters Charity to ensure emergency responders have access to high quality mental health resources and training for emergency responders to challenge stigma and improve their wellbeing.
Our Blue Light Programme will also work with emergency responders to challenge media and public attitudes about the work of emergency responders during the pandemic.
Image credit: West Midlands Police
Together with the emergency services community, we will:
Image credit: London Ambulance Service
We've been listening to the experiences of emergency responders and how the pandemic has affected their mental health. The experiences shared will offer key recommendations for employers when planning mental health and wellbeing support and will help us to develop new resources to support emergency responders now and into the future.
Our findings will be available in April 2021 at mind.org.uk/bluelight
The Blue Light Programme is funded by the Royal Foundation. The Foundation have a long history of raising awareness of mental health and have played a leading role in supporting the emergency services.
We'll be sharing information about how staff, volunteers and employers in the emergency services can get involved in the programme via our monthly newsletter. To subscribe to the newsletter, raise a query or share feedback about the programme, please contact us at [email protected]
During these four years, we worked with partners to deliver an ambitious and comprehensive programme of activity aimed at reducing stigma, promoting wellbeing and improving mental health support for those working or volunteering in ambulance, fire, police, and search and rescue services.
Thousands of staff and volunteers across the emergency services actively challenged stigma, learned more about mental health and made positive changes in their approach to supporting the wellbeing of themselves and others.
Our end-of-programme survey in 2019 showed a range of positive, crucial changes to how mental health is seen within the emergency services.
These included:
You can find out more about our survey results, learnings and key recommendations from the Blue Light Programme in our report here. We also have an English summary and Welsh summary.