A vital mental health service for first responders must be given permanent funding and the NSW Government should step in if the Commonwealth won\u2019t, says the Public Service Association and the Fire Brigade Employees Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Funding for the Black Dog Institute\u2019s Traumatic Stress Clinic hasn\u2019t been renewed, meaning the vital mental health support for first responders to bushfires, floods and other natural disasters will end on June 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The unions, which have members working across emergency services including Fire and Rescue NSW, RFS, SES, Police and 000 call operators, say the funding must be secured, either by the Commonwealth or the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPost traumatic stress and mental trauma doesn\u2019t stop once the flood dries and the fires are out,\u201d said Stewart Little, general secretary of the PSA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf the Commonwealth won\u2019t fund the Black Dog Institute\u2019s Traumatic Stress Clinic for first responders then the Premier needs to step in and do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFirst responders are ordinary women and men who do extraordinary things,\u201d said Leighton Drury, secretary of the FBEU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey’re there for us in our hour of need, we shouldn\u2019t abandon them. We should be investing in their mental health and resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A vital mental health service for first responders must be given permanent funding and the NSW Government should step in if the Commonwealth won\u2019t, says the Public Service Association and the Fire Brigade Employees Union. Funding for the Black Dog Institute\u2019s Traumatic Stress Clinic hasn\u2019t been renewed, meaning the vital mental health support for first … Continue reading “Permanent funding for first responders’ mental health needed now”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15579"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15580,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15579\/revisions\/15580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}