HUGS Community

Thousands of first responders in Ireland attend emergencies every day.  These people work and volunteer on the frontline in fire, ambulance, police, prison, rescue, defence, and related services.  First responders invariably encounter stress in the course of their work, which can lead to high levels of mental ill-health.  Although they may have access to workplace supports to deal with such issues, this is often inadequate (overly formalised, lack of specialist understanding, perceived stigma, confidentiality concerns, etc). Therefore, they carry their work-related trauma into their homes and friendship circles, negatively affecting loved ones as a result. The workplace also suffers through lowered morale, performance issues and retention difficulties, with further downstream effects on society more broadly. 

Our mission is to empower first responders and their families, friends, and organisational representatives to better wellbeing, through co-designed, tailored, practical psychological first aid training and psychosocial support, across their career lifespan.   

Along with a wonderful co-design team in 2022, we developed an innovative one-day in-person HUGS training course to teach practical psychological first aid skills to frontline personnel, their families, friends and organisations.  Since 2023, we've rolled this training out across multiple counties in Ireland and one location in the UK. As a result, we've seen increased confidence in starting helpful conversations, enhanced social support, improved help-seeking, maintenance of resilience and increases in post-traumatic growth!