VFR Mental Health Grant Program
Supporting of veterans and first responders, as well as their families
Behavioural Activation for Low mood and anxiety in Male NHS frontline workers: The BALM programme
Behavioural Activation for Low Mood and Anxiety in Male Frontline NHS Workers (BALM) is a program for frontline NHS workers to prevent common mental health challenges. It involves co-designing and developing a self-help Behavioural Activation booklet tailored for men who are working on the NHS frontline. In Behavioural Activation, people are supported to develop a treatment plan that seeks to reinstate behaviours that connect them to sources of positive reinforcement, and reduce aviodance behaviours. Booklets will be delivered to frontline NHS workers and trained BALM coaches will help them use the booklet. The aim is to improve low mood and anxiety in male frontline NHS workers.
Enhanced Stress First Aid
Stress First Aid is an online training program to help firefighters recognise signs of distress in their peers/coworkers, create both comfort and facility with techniques to approach the situation, render supportive assistance, and ensure that a coworker in need takes the first steps to secure help. Social support plays a critical role in mitigating and remediating the trauma, stresses and strains firefighters face in their work. This project aims to increases firefighters’ perceptions of social support from and within departments, and increase their knowledge of occupational stressors and coping mechanisms and confidence in taking steps to intervene or assist.
First Responder Resiliency Program (FRRP)
The First Responder Resiliency Program is a facilitated, a four-day, retreat-based curriculum for serving police and fire fighters in British Columbia. The program offers an intensive 34 hours of skill development for those looking to strengthen their personal, organizational and operational stress competence and capacity and their relationship skills at any stage of their career. The curriculum teaches effective, culturally acceptable mental health self-care and community capacity building skills that are deployable in real life situations.
HUGS@Home
HUGS@Home is an educational and support program for family members of first responders. It uses trained simulated participants (professional actors or members of the public) to explore views and experiences, includes psychoeducation and crisis intervention to family members of first responders and has a support cafe component. The program runs for 1.5 days. The program will train family members to recognise the signs and symptoms of stress in their first responder, and provide a basic helpful intervention to manage that crisis, being mindful of their own self care. The program aims to further develop a support network and train family members or close friends to provided crisis intervention techniques in the aftermath of a critical incident.
Meaning-Centred Men's Groups (MCMG)
Meaning-Centered Men’s Groups (MCMG) is a program for veterans and first responders retired or planning retirement within 2 years. Twelve online/face-to-face sessions are held over 12 weeks. It is a community-based psychological group designed to promote camaraderie and mutual support, enhance psychological resiliency and well-being, and prevent the onset or exacerbation of depression and suicide ideation in men over 55 concerned about or struggling to transition to retirement. Sessions focus on intrapersonal and interpersonal transitions associated with retirement via discussion about the meaning of work, creativity, recreation, leisure, volunteering, mentoring, societal contributions, relationships, pain and suffering, guilt, generativity, and mortality. The aim is to enhance psychological resiliency, promote mental health and well-being, and reduce suicide risk in veterans and first responders potentially vulnerable to psychological distress and suicide risk by virtue of having worked in a high-stress occupation coupled with a major career transition.
Police Wellbeing and Trauma Resilience Programme
The Police Wellbeing & Trauma Resilience Programme is a suite of five projects which aims to establish proactive and evidence based therapeutic interventions within a UK police force. The first project is a wide collection of psycho-educational resources for new employees and their families with plans to expand access to this self-help and training material to the broader workforce. The second project seeks to further enhance a pre-established peer support service’s capacity to deliver a broad range of low intensity therapeutic interventions. The third project aims to establish a bespoke digital wellbeing plan for all individuals within the organisation. The fourth project is the development of a mental health app that enables employees to self-evaluate and track their mental wellbeing before being signposted to avenues of therapeutic support. The final project seeks to establish a form of group based EMDR co-delivered by peer supporters and mental health clinicians to support those recovering from recent operational experiences that have been highly stressful or traumatic in nature.
Minds Together
Minds Together is an online program to meet the specific needs of family and friends supporting paramedics who are experiencing mental ill-health or suicidal distress. The program consists of four modules, an online social platform, fact sheets, interactive activities, lived experience stories, and links to mental health resources. Modules are released one per week for four weeks. Participants will have access to the program and online social platform for a total of eight weeks. The program aims to build the capability, knowledge and skills among family and friends to care for themselves to prevent their own psychological difficulties, as well as strengthen the support they provide to a paramedic in their life experiencing psychological distress.
Peer-On-Call
Peer OnCall is a peer to peer support tool (mobile health app) co-designed by and for Candian Public Safey Personnel (PSP). The final product includes two parallel Apps: PeerOnCall for front-line workers seeking support and OnCallSupport for peer support providers. The two apps are connected through a secure third-party phone service designed to protect the privacy of both parties. These two apps will facilitate 24/7 access to high quality, confidential information and peer to peer support. This includes access to self-screening tools, a personalized wellness toolbox, over 70 “peer wisdom” videos, and 20 evidence-informedarticles that are customized for PSP. The project aims to reduce barriers to reaching out by providing confidential, 24/7 access to customized information and options to access peer support, regardless of location.
Protecting Emergency Responders with Evidence-Based Interventions (PEREI)
PEREI is an online wellbeing and resilience program for new and existing police and fire service members in the first 5 years of service. The 7-week program includes a wellbeing ‘coach’ who checks in with the person briefly and regularly during the program to boost their support. PEREI includes a parallel wellbeing program tailored for members’ significant others, and provides senior supervisors with training, skills, and support so they can promote good mental health, and identify and work with members who may have mental health challenges.
Resilient Minds
Resilient Minds is a peer-to-peer, skill-building program for career and volunteer firefighters across Ontario, Canada to develop strategies to mitigate and better manage occupational stress and enhance personal resilience. The program offers two options for delivery: a peer-led course provided directly to firefighters (8h); and a train-the-trainer workshop (24h) that prepares and certifies firefighters to become peer instructors to deliver Resilient Minds course. Resilient Minds training increases the ability for firefighters to recognize the effects of psychological stress and trauma in themselves and their peers; communicate with peers who may be struggling; respond promptly, safely, and appropriately to distressed citizens; and apply personal strategies for managing stress, mitigating trauma, and boosting resilience.
RESLEAPS: Resilient Senior Leaders Programme
Resilient Senior Leaders Programme (RESLEAPS) is a program for police superintendents and supports transitions into the role and into retirement. It involves up to six 1-hr (lunchtime) sessions which are facilitated by the project team that aim to promote a safe space and protected time for senior police leaders to reflect on challenges and difficulties they may face in their roles, creating a shared learning environment and fostering mutual understanding and trust. The programme builds on existing peer networks within senior ranks to create 1) reflective practice groups, and 2) trained peer supporters, to foster a trusting culture, reduce stigma of seeking support and create a safe space to share concerns. The aim is to to improve the psychological, support and wellbeing needs of police superintendents.
RUPERT (FoRUm fur Psychische gEsundheit im deutschen)
The RUPERT program is an online intervention for emergency medical personnel (EMP) with depression, offering psychoeducational information and community-based support. The website provides education about depression and management/treatment, monthly expert online chats on relevant topics where EMPs can ask questions, navigation into the help system, explanation and de-stigmatisation of support services, and supportive assistance through a professionally moderated online discussion forum. RUPERT aims to meet the general and special needs of EMTs and to reduce possible subsequent disorders such as depression, anxiety, with consecutive suicidal tendencies resulting from not treating stressful feelings and emotionality.
Soldiers Heart Program
Soldier’s Heart is a facilitated 6-day retreat-based program for rural and remote first responders in Alaska. The program involves a peer led training intensive designed by and for those with service-related trauma to process the effects of post-traumatic stress and gain tools for healthy living. Topics include trauma triggers, grounding, survival guilt and shame, impact on loved ones, grief, and loss, and finding meaning and forgiveness. The program aims to provide new knowledge, reduce the effects of post-traumatic stress among first responders and law enforcement; aide in suicide prevention through a community of peer support and understanding; and address the culture of silence and stigma related to first responder post-traumatic stress.
Validation of Disaster Relief Australia's Program to Support Veterans and First Responders to Grow Beyond Their Service
Disaster Relief Australia is volunteer program that deploys veterans, retired first responders and civillians to disaster stricken areas to provide disaster relief services. The program aims to utilise the specific skillsets and qualities that veterans and first responders can bring to aiding in disaster relief work. Volunteers are called on and participate in the program as disasters arise. Volunteering and civic service is linked to fostering a sense of meaning and purpose, a sense of comradery, relationships and community, a sense of benevolence and contribution to a larger cause. This program is thought to provide psychological and psychosocial health benefits for veterans and first responders who participate in a volunteer program.
Whanaungatanga Program
The Whanaungatanga Programme (WP) is an organisational strategy that seeks to improve firefighter first responder wellbeing via organisational changes that promote connection, trust, and a strong sense of value and belonging. Workplace change initiatives will be co-designed and developed through collaboration with firefighters and managers in Te Hiku region via a series of workshops. A comprehensive suite of initiatives will be designed and delivered over the course of the program. The WP aims to enhance the perception that the firefighter organisation considers individuals have innate and inherent value which is reflected in the organisational interactions, systems and policies, and organisational support.