The First Responder Community
We provide training in formal and informal mental health and wellbeing support to first responders from both the volunteer and paid sector including firefighters, paramedics, community first responders, Civil Defence and Irish Red Cross.
We help family and friends support the first responders in their life by teaching them the "Look Listen and Link" principles of basic psychological first aid.
We provide support and training to first responder organisations to enable them provide formal and informal mental health and wellbeing support to their members.
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.
HUGS Community is a social enterprise, established in 2024 following a successful three-year evidence-based research programme called HUGS@Home (www.hugsathome.eu), based at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dublin. We are registered as a Company Limited by Guarantee, HUGS- Hearing Understanding Guiding Supporting CLG (CRO number 769845), now trading as HUGS Community on a profit with purpose basis.
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