Faced with increasing mental health-related calls and the fast-pace demands of emergency services, SAS took on customised training to help staff confidence in supporting patients in distress.
The challenge:
The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) is on the frontline of the NHS, dispatching immediate medical assistance or clinical advice to over 5 million people across Scotland. Their aim is to offer the highest level of care to patients through their skilled workforce who provide support and compassion to those who need it most. With pressure on mental health services across Scotland, SAS has seen a growing increase in attending mental health related calls.
Due to the fast-paced nature of working in emergency services, it can be challenging for colleagues in these roles to have space and time to reflect on situations or calls which may have been challenging, and also check in with their own wellbeing and mental health.
The solution:
Mary, Clinical Effectiveness Lead Mental Health at Scottish Ambulance Service, completed a scoping review of staff needs when she joined the service in 2021. Feedback from the review suggested that staff often felt they lacked confidence in their abilities to support patients in mental health crisis and distress.
From there, connections were made with our Samaritans Training and Engagement Programmes team. After going over Scottish Ambulance’s needs, it was decided that a customised Listening Skills and Emotional Health programme would provide staff with the tools required to recognise self-care and other emotional wellbeing, active listening skills, and a framework of how to end conversations effectively and sensitively. The goal of delivering the courses was to help staff feel more confident and competent in supporting patients experiencing distress.
In total, 12 courses were delivered face-to-face to 109 members of staff across a range of different roles, including: call-handling staff, supervisors, dispatch, auditors, practice developers and mental health paramedic staff.
The impact:
Since Samaritans’ training, teams within Scottish Ambulance Service have come together to deliver further mental health awareness training, they have also developed new conversational guides to support call-handling colleagues so they can navigate conversations with patients in a supportive and compassionate way.
Feedback from staff who attended our courses was overwhelmingly positive, with staff feeling more confident and competent supporting patients in distress.
The trainer was fantastic and provided opportunities for staff to explore experiences and examples from their practice. I would recommend this course to any service who support individuals experiencing mental health crisis and distress, particularly emergency services.
Your people and teams can benefit from Samaritans’ training too.
Get in touch with our team today