Luke, I don’t think anyone who has had dealings with the emergency services should be surprised.

The media attention has certainly been dominated by a focus on paid staff due the apparent incursion of paid staff into volunteer areas, and MFB and UFU negotiations with the State Government. The mental health and wellbeing of firefighters should be independent of the politics and what I find most surprising in the report is the criticism of the MFB’s OHS resources. Many years ago I had a zone of the MFB as a client and I was impressed by the commitment of the personnel and Commanders, and thought that the OHS strategy and resources were pretty good.

I have witnessed group debriefs after traumatic episodes and spoken with the peer support personnel. Your experience would substantiate the report’s call for increased resources in this area. Bureaucracy can impede access and that needs to be addressed.

Thanks for commenting

What does concern me however is the significant focus on paid staff whether it be Police, Ambulance or Fire, over the last year or so in the media, with little regard to the mental health of volunteers (SES, CFA, etc) who are exposed to just as much trauma and with even less training, equipment and support.

I can recount first hand experience in trying to access peer support, only to be left incredibly frustrated due to bureaucracy gone mad (And that’s not about the actual support itself, it’s trying to access the support!).