Breaking Barriers, Changing Lives:
Investigating Mental Health and Wellbeing Among Women in Emergency Services
This investigation provides the Emergency Services Foundation (ESF) of Melbourne, Victoria with information on the barriers preventing women in emergency services from seeking mental health support. This project included introductory interviews, a survey, and focused interviews and discussion groups. The main finding of this project was that to improve work culture, the biggest inhibitor of mental health and well-being of women in the emergency services, focus is needed towards bettering mental health literacy and interpersonal intelligence for line managers.
Emergency Services Foundation
The Emergency Services Foundation is a non-profit organization that supports emergency services to prevent, promote and address the incidence and impact of mental injury for the 125,000 volunteers and paid staff who serve us. ESF focuses on building collaborative approaches to discover and address sector-wide issues causing a high incidence of mental injury.
