On the 30th and 31st of May more than 120 delegates representing more than 30 individual emergency services organisations attended the first ever Emergency Services Gathering, hosted by Gallagher Bassett.

The two day event brought together executives and personal injury leaders from emergency services organisations across Australia to share experiences, deliberate over key concerns such as mental health challenges and collectively apply their minds in an innovation sprint style workshop to develop real breakthroughs that will be piloted after each event.

Day one of the event was focussed on inspiration, with some of Australia's leading speakers on mental health presenting in order to inspire the delegates. Speakers included

The Hon Jeff Kennett AC started the day with a presentation on the welfare of employees the second priority of all employers after good governance followed by presentations from Dr Paula Dabovich, University of ADE, Rob Heaslip, Beyondblue, Corporal Mark Donaldson VC, COL Laura Sinclair, CSC, Department of Defence and Dr Darja Kragt, WA University.

The first day also featured a number of discussion panels the first one with Marnie Williams, WorkSafe VIC, Alex Donavan, icare, Kerry Barnaart, WorkSafe NT and John McNamara, Gallagher Bassett focussing on Government perspective: The impact of mental health and how the schemes are preventing and managing mental health for their clients.

The second panel discussion provided the opportunity for Emergency Service organisations share their latest tools and programs for preventing and managing mental health Injuries.

Snr Sgt Angela Coulson, VIC Police, Alison Donohoe, NSW Fire & Rescue and Bruce Van Haeften, NT Police, Fire & Emergency Services all made valuable contributions to this discussion.

On day two delegates were challenged to take this inspiration to develop solutions for some of the greatest mental health challenges facing their industry through innovation sprints.

Through four distinct phases, the innovation sprint participants took the time to fully understand the problem they are trying to solve, create as many ideas around a solution for a challenge, converge down on one idea to then prototype quickly and test in front of a group of mentors.

During the innovation sprint, teams collaborated on one of the below challenges that addresses a barrier for early help-seeking behaviour.

How to validate and increase early help-seeking behaviour.

1. How do we build a people-focused leadership culture that prioritises mental health?
2. How do we ensure we are providing adequate mental health support services to remote emergency service workers?
3. How can we engage with families to support emergency services workers whilst maintaining healthy boundaries between the individual, the family and the workplace?

How to improve return to work and transition outcomes.

1. How do we shift the ‘job for life’ mindset to empower employees to successfully transition out of emergency services and into a role in an industry they feel passionately about?
2. How do we design a dedicated preparation-for-retirement program for emergency services workers to address the challenges faced prior to and post transition?
3. How can we use exercise to promote positive mental health to improve return to work outcomes?

The initiatives and solutions that each of the teams came up with on day two will be piloted.

GB's Managing Director, John McNamara was thankful to the delegates for attending and contributing to such a worthwhile event,

“It was great to see such a wide range of executives and personal injury leaders from within the emergency services industry and all over Australia, come together to connect, collaborate and create on some key challenges.”

“A big thank you to everyone who attended and for contributing and participating so enthusiastically towards tackling mental health challenges. I am confident that the brilliant ideas and innovative solutions that delegates came up with over the two days, will make a significant difference to the lives of many emergency service employees. A special thank you to the mentors who facilitated and ran the innovation sprints on day two” said John.