Heroes on the frontline
YESTERDAY was R U Okay? Day – a day designed to remind people to check in with friends and family and to have meaningful conversations about mental health and wellbeing. This year the conversation is even more pertinent. There are few people who remain untouched or unaffected by the coronavirus pandemic.
In recent years, we’ve become a lot more adept and candid when it comes to talking about mental health and mental illness.
Yet too often, we think mental illness is something that will never impact us personally. Some of us are still scared to admit we don’t feel well, concerned about the judgement of others.
Pressure such as that we are experiencing through the coronavirus crisis can leave even the most resilient gasping for air, short-tempered or lying awake at night.
That point might have been and gone, it might come in coming weeks or even months down the track so the R U Okay? message needs to be front of mind every day, not just on September 10.
Everyone has their own battles but the story of anguish from emergency services on our frontline is very real and very disturbing.
Today the Mercury reports that more than 100 Tasmanian police officers are currently off work on workers’ compensation.
The union says an average of four police officers a
EVERYONE HAS A RIGHT TO FEEL SAFE AT WORK YET THERE APPEARS TO BE A TREND WHERE FRONTLINE WORKERS ARE BEING ATTACKED IN THE LINE OF DUTY.
week are assaulted at work. In the past year police have been stabbed, rammed, punched, kicked, spat on and bitten. Sadly assaults against these workers – who already deal with some of the worst situations a person can face with little notice – are all too common. Apart from the physical impact of that, the emotional scars are just as hard to heal with 40 officers out of work for mental health reasons.
Others on the frontline face just as harrowing a reality.
Ambulance personnel are also suffering – with 54 paramedics currently away from their jobs on workers compensation.
Their union representative, Tim Jacobson, stressed that some paramedics are so used to suffering abuse at the hands of patients that they don’t even report it.
The build-up of that sort of regular experience can and does lead to stress, mental health impacts and in some cases post-traumatic stress injury.
Everyone has a right to feel safe at work yet there appears to be an increasing trend where frontline workers are being attacked in the line of duty.
The cumulative effect of incident after incident and never knowing when the next attack might happen can chip away at their wellbeing.
We can’t forget either that frontline workers are often forced to put themselves at risk for our protection. Plus they’ve been placed under additional stress during the coronavirus crisis helping government with tasks such as compliance checks.
They shoulder a lot of burden. They feel responsible for our safety and often are so busy being the first responders to our crisis that they put checking in on themselves last. What more we can do to support them is well worth thinking about.
Responsibility for all editorial comment is taken by the Editor, Jenna Cairney, Level 1, 2 Salamanca Square, Hobart, TAS, 7000