Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service is using a national campaign to ensure all its employees understand how supportive the organisation is about their mental health.
Time to Talk Day is a day when people across the UK are encouraged to have a conversation about mental health.
The theme this year is the ‘power of small’ and about finding a small thing people can do to make a big difference to someone else.
Chief Fire Officer, Rod Hammerton said: “We will all face events in our lives that will affect our mental health and we also know that often something as simple as talking can help.
“As part of our ongoing commitment to support staff, we have created activities for staff across the Service to take a moment to discuss mental health.
“The current lockdowns are affecting everybody’s mental health more than ever, with increased isolation and worries about loved ones. We want everyone who works here to feel they can be open about their mental health and to be able to ask for support when they need it.”
“Too often mental health problems are treated as a taboo subject – which is not the culture we have here at Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service. We don’t want anyone to feel they are alone.”
The Service has trained more than 60 mental health first aiders and created a ‘Voices’ group to represent different people’s views and beliefs within the organisation. Both groups are making themselves available to operational and support staff during the week to support the campaign.
In February 2016 the Service signed the ‘Time to Change’ Employer Pledge, as a commitment to change how the Service thinks and acts about mental health at every level of the organisation.
