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Who we are
We are a dynamic team from a diverse first responder background including fire and paramedic service, emergency medicine, military medical service, family members of serving personnel, educators and researchers. We have extensive lived experience of operational and organisational stress, peer support, and trauma-informed psychoeducation.
Our vision is a society where first responders, their friends, family members and organisations will talk about mental health without fear or stigma, and feel confident to support each other.
Michelle O'Toole
Chief Executive Officer
Co-Founder
Michelle O'Toole is a Teacher Practitioner and Senior Research Fellow at the RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences and a Lecturer in Paramedicine in University College Cork. As a former Firefighter and Advanced Paramedic with Dublin Fire Brigade, and importantly as a family member of service personnel, she brings unique insights into family life in the emergency services. Funded by Movember, she co-created the evidence-based HUGS@Home initiative, to train family and friends of first responders in psychological first aid and self-care. As a qualified crisis intervention practitioner and instructor, she provides psychosocial trauma support and education to both individuals and teams. In 2024, along with Brian Doyle, she co-founded an emerging social enterprise spin out company, HUGS Community. She holds a Masters in Psychological trauma and is currently a PhD student in the Dept of Paramedicine at Monash University Australia, focusing on wellbeing for emergency personnel and those who support them.
Email: michelle@hugscommunity.ie
Brian Doyle
Chief Operations Officer
Co-Founder
Brian Doyle is a Research Assistant in RCSI SIM, Centre for Simulation Education and Research, and along with Michelle is a co-founder of emerging social enterprise spin out company, HUGS Community. With 28 years service with Dublin Fire Brigade prior to retirement in 2022, Brian has a wealth of experience as a firefighter/paramedic, CISM peer supporter, mentor and team coordinator within a Fire EMS service provider. He is also an accredited instructor in Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) with the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF), providing psychosocial trauma support and education to both individuals and teams. He has an applied knowledge of various research methodologies, which include design, and implementation of quantitative and qualitative studies and subsequent data analysis gained during his Masters in Applied Social Research. His current projects focus on first responder wellbeing, peer support, posttraumatic growth/stress within the emergency services and the use of simulation to prepare learners for real world experiences.
Email: brian@hugscommunity.ie
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