Mental Health Articles

Resilience, what is it?

“We’ve all heard the term ‘resilience’ and we know intuitively that having resilience is a good thing. But what does resilience really mean? How do you know if you’re resilient and more importantly, is it possible to become more resilient?”

2010 Workers with Mental Illness: a Practical Guide for Managers

“The guide has been endorsed by the Fair Work Ombudsman, beyondblue: the national depression initiative, SANE Australia, the Mental Health Council of Australia, and supported by Safe Work Australia.”

www.humanrights.gov.au

Understanding and managing psychological trauma

“The word ‘trauma’ is derived from the Greek term for a ‘wound’. Very frightening or distressing events may result in a psychological wound or injury – a difficulty in coping or functioning normally following a particular event or experience. Everyone’s reaction is different, but most people who experience a potentially traumatic event will recover well with the help of family and friends and will not experience any long-term problems. If people do develop problems, they may appear directly after the traumatic event or they may not emerge until much later. “

www.psychology.org.au

Stress First Aid manual for Firefighters and Emergency Medical Services Personnel – downloadable document published by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation National Center for PTSD, Department of Veterans Affairs (USA).

This student manual, Stress First Aid for Firefighters and Emergency Medical Services Personnel has been developed to assist firefighters and EMS providers in taking care of each other. As this manual notes, Stress First Aid (SFA) “offers a flexible set of tools for addressing stress reactions in firefighters and rescue personnel.” It is intended to help members and leaders provide compassionate assistance to fire and Emergency Medical Services personnel, to prevent the progression of stress reactions and to bridge affected individuals to more formal treatment when that is required.