In 2019, The Royal Foundation commissioned a comprehensive research project to look into the mental health and wellbeing of emergency responders in the UK. The research, conducted by King’s College London and the Open University, identified a need for greater sharing of better practice across the emergency service sector to best support the mental health of its workforce. This research also highlighted the need to facilitate better access to wellbeing support and better signposting to support initiatives, especially for the needs of families and retirees.
In November 2021, the Prince of Wales announced the aim to create a Network of Emergency Services Therapists. The Royal Foundation provided funding for the creation and development of a directory of therapists who have extensive experience in addressing and treating the complex mental health needs of emergency responders.
NEST is a collaborative venture involving charities and organisations from across the emergency services and beyond. The different organisations that are involved are described here.
The Royal Foundation mobilises leaders, businesses and people to address society’s greatest challenges. Led by the Prince and Princess of Wales, its work is built on world-class research, long-term partnerships, and measurable, scalable impact.
Its purpose includes convening purposefully to understand issues and explore solutions with a focus on creating long-term impact, along with incubating initiatives and working with delivery partners to implement and scale solutions with the ambition that they become sustainable.
The Fire Fighters Charity offers specialist, lifelong support for members of the UK fire services community, empowering individuals to live a happier and healthier life. Ensuring beneficiaries get the right support, delivered in the right way and at the right time is the corner stone on which its support philosophy is based.
The Ambulance Staff Charity is a national charity which is proud to provide a range of independant and confidential mental, physical, and financial services to support the wellbeing of the UK’s ambulance family.
TASC is here to provide support and advice to help ensure the UK’s ambulance community is strong and resilient.
Counselling changes not just the lives of individuals, but of families and communities. The BACP promotes and facilitates research to produce trusted best practice and provides a robust framework to ensure the profession follows and adheres to the highest possible standards that protect individuals seeking therapy.
We will seek applications from suitably qualified and experienced therapists to join our register. This process will include checking credentials and associated documentation. Once approved, therapist details will be added to our searchable database.
In Phase 2, Police Care UK will ask NEST to match suitable beneficiaries with NEST therapists, identifying therapy requirements and the number of sessions authorised. When NEST receives a request, it will identify a therapist from its register and check whether they have capacity to accommodate that beneficiary. If so, Police Care UK will then contact the therapist direct to pass on information about the beneficiary and outline how and when contact should be made with Police Care UK (e.g., interim and final reporting, safeguarding issues and payment of invoices). This will include the provision of a ‘user manual’, which will act as a single point of reference for organisational specific issues.
Following on from an evaluation of Phase 2, which will include a review of the recruitment and matching processes, which therapists will be invited to participate in, other organisations involved with the emergency services will be invited to become part of the NEST project. At this stage, these organisations will be able to access the register themselves. When they identify a suitable therapist, they will arrange with them for a contract to be agreed between that organisation and the therapist, which will include details of how and when to contact the referring organisation.
Phase 3 will begin when we are confident we can deliver an effective service for both beneficiaries and therapists alike. We expect this to be around six months after the start of Phase 2.
