Accessible support for young volunteer mental health

A new interactive mental health module is making it easier for young volunteers and emergency agencies to learn, practice and promote positive mental health and wellbeing.

The Interactive Care4Guide is the latest resource from the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC’s Positive mental health in young adult emergency services personnel project. This research is led by Dr Amanda Taylor at the University of Adelaide, in partnership with AFAC, Flinders University, the University of Western Australia, the University of British Columbia in Canada, the Hospital Research Foundation, Military and Emergency Services Health Australia, several key emergency service agencies and the young adult members of the project’s Young Volunteer Advisory Committee.

The Interactive Care4Guide – available here – increases the accessibility of the recently launched Care4Guide booklet by presenting the content as an interactive and engaging online module. This new format includes helpful animations, exercises and a quiz that volunteers can work through privately and at their own pace, to make it as easy as possible to develop and maintain the mental health support skills they need while volunteering.

It joins a suite of recently launched resources from this project, including the original Care4Guide booklet, posters, social media assets and fact sheets, which all work together to support the integration of positive mental health activities into the day-to-day practices of emergency services.

This research was the first in Australia to focus specifically on mental health of young emergency service volunteers. Researchers worked with young volunteers to understand the potentially traumatic impacts that volunteering has on them and what support currently exists within agencies. From the findings, researchers developed evidence-based resources that volunteers and their agencies can use to support and promote positive wellbeing.

The Interactive Care4Guide is now also available to download and embed within agency websites or intranets, giving emergency services a practical tool to use when managing and supporting volunteers.

You can access all of these resources, including the new Interactive Care4Guide and instructions for how to embed it, here.