{"id":355049,"date":"2025-12-17T23:56:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T23:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/355049\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T23:56:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T23:56:19","slug":"mental-health-service-helping-south-west-paramedics-at-work-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/355049\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental health service helping South West paramedics at work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jen SmithSouth West health correspondent<\/p>\n

\"BBCBBC<\/p>\n

Emergency medical dispatcher Toria Ford said the counselling she had received had kept her in her job<\/p>\n

Paramedics have praised an ambulance service’s mental health support service – with some saying it had kept them in the job.<\/p>\n

The South Western Ambulance Service Foundation Trust (SWASFT) – which has more than 6,000 employees and 650 volunteers – said demand for mental health support among its staff was at record levels.<\/p>\n

It said more than 1,600 staff members had accessed support in the last year from its Staying Well initiative.<\/p>\n

Lauren Dunn, the trust’s mental health lead, said emergency responders were more likely to be diagnosed with a mental health condition than the general population.<\/p>\n

Bosses at the trust said demand for its Staying Well service had grown since it was launched 10 years ago, with support evolving to include an in-house trauma therapist.<\/p>\n

Ms Dunn said: “We know one in four people are diagnosed with a mental health condition every year, and we know in blue light services that that is higher.”<\/p>\n

She said the Staying Well service was created “to make sure we are there in those moments of need”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Lauren Dunn – head of wellbeing at SWAFST – said demand was increasing for the mental health support among the trust’s staff<\/p>\n

Emergency medical dispatcher Toria Ford said one of the hardest things was not always knowing the outcome of her work.<\/p>\n

“I’m the call-taker who answers the phone once you call 999 and ask for an ambulance” she said.<\/p>\n

“The crews then arrive and we move onto the next call.”<\/p>\n

Ms Ford said the trauma she experienced on a daily basis could be hard to deal with.<\/p>\n

“The difficulties that other people go through, what people are experiencing maybe once or twice in their life, to make them call 999,” she said.<\/p>\n

“You then come into the job and experience that five, six, seven times a day.<\/p>\n

“You’re dealing with those really critical emergency moments much more than other people, and I really struggled with that.”<\/p>\n

Ms Ford was put in touch with the Staying Well service and received counselling as part of her therapy.<\/p>\n

“I think just reaching out and being able to get the support was really, really beneficial,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s definitely helped, it’s kept me in the job.”<\/p>\n

Paramedic Mylena Wheaton, who has been with the ambulance service for 17 years, said she had seen everything from babies being born to major incidents with multiple fatalities.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think I was fully prepared for the emotions that go alongside the jobs that we go to,” she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Wheaton asked for support from the trust’s Staying Well service in November 2024.<\/p>\n

She added: “I realised that when I went to a job that was quite a normal job, and I wasn’t coping very well with it, that’s when I realised that I knew I needed help.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Paramedic Mylena Wheaton asked for help from the South Western Ambulance Service’s mental health support programme last year. <\/p>\n

Ms Wheaton said she had become increasingly anxious, worried about her performance at work and lacking in confidence.<\/p>\n

She added: “I’m so glad that I reached out – I honestly don’t think I would be here if I hadn’t have reached out and spoken to somebody at that time.<\/p>\n

“We see so much, and to us it becomes normal, but it’s not normal.<\/p>\n

“To be there at somebody’s you know, sort of last moment – it can be a hugely traumatic event, and sometimes we just brush it under the carpet.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jen SmithSouth West health correspondent BBC Emergency medical dispatcher Toria Ford said the counselling she had received had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260],"class_list":{"0":"post-355049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}