The FBU and University of Central Lancashire are calling for all serving UK fire service staff to fill out a survey of their experiences of mental health. Rebecca Lewington, control member and FBU regional secretary for the Eastern region, explains how taking part will help build the demand for change.
My name is Rebecca and I’m a Watch Manager in Bedfordshire Fire Control Room. Like many fire service workers, I’ve struggled with my mental health as a result of the pressures of work on the frontline.
I know that many of us feel forced to suffer in silence, which is why I’m sharing my story in the hope that you will share yours.
We feel the impact of austerity every day. Our workloads have increased, while the number of staff available to do the work has shrunk. The weight of these cuts is resting on our shoulders, and it’s a heavy burden to bear.
I went from being part of a standard control room of 5 people per watch to only 4 people available on shift and often working with unsafe crewing levels. I took on more roles and responsibilities, including training new recruits while on the job. As well as fewer control staff in the UK, there are fewer firefighters, and at times I started shifts with a sense of dread that there wouldn’t be enough crews available should we get a major incident.
I was under immense pressure and really struggling, but I didn’t want to let my colleagues down who were also carrying the load. I bottled up how I was feeling and tried to carry on.
When people on my watch asked me what was wrong, I would just say that I was fine.
Several times a day, I was so stressed I was going into the bathroom to cry, then returning to work. One day, I was given a long-term task to complete and was told “this is going to be a really stressful time”. I thought to myself, how much more can I actually take? The feelings I had been trying to push down hit me all at once.
I told my manager how I was feeling but there was little he could do help me. It took an officer I’d known for a long time coming into the control room, recognising I wasn’t ok and putting me on sick leave for me to get the help I needed.
All over the UK, firefighters and fire control staff have stories like mine.
Workers who have reached burnout yet are still carrying out a job making decisions that affect people’s lives. People who are suffering with depression and anxiety because of the immense pressure they are under at work but feel like they can’t take the time off they need to recover.
Staff who are suffering from PTSD because of an incident they dealt with at work but don’t have adequate mental health support in place in their fire service. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
We can win investment in and commitment to creating better mental health support in every workplace. We can make sure that there are measures put in place to address the underlying causes of poor mental health in the fire service.
But to do that, we need to understand the extent of the problem and the solutions to address it.
You never know who around you could be suffering and not opening up. Sometimes the strongest people are the ones who fight battles you know nothing about. But no one should be made to feel this way by their place of work. That’s why it’s so important that we all do our part and fill in this survey.
- The anonymous mental health survey is open to all serving UK firefighters online: https://redcap.link/37ci3es8
