Our emergency service workers are always there for us-it is time now we support their mental health needs.

The festive season is here but for the majority of our bluelight workers, their already heavy work loads are now increasing even more. What most of the public are unaware of is that a one in four members of our emergency service workers now suffer with post traumatic stress disorder.

There is a prevalence now throughout all our bluelight services than is much higher than the average rate of ptsd across the general population. It has also now been acknowledged that one in four members of our emergency service workers have thought about ending their own life.

The level of traumatic incidents experienced by all three services has grown at a very fast rate. Incidents such as terror attacks, knife attacks and stabbings, and horrendous fatal collisions.

Several years ago firefighters attended a fire in east London where a pensioner in her 80s was rescued from a burning house. The firefighters rescued her and did everything they could to keep her alive, but sadly she died despite their best attempts. They then learned that the fire had started due to teenagers throwing a firework through her door. Those firefighters were left traumatised. The sadness they felt trying to save the lady and then losing her, stayed with them.

Police officers attended a horrific traffic collision where a mother pushing her pram across the road had been hit by a speeding vehicle and thrown over a bridge, landing on a railway line unable to move. The incident was worse then horrendous as officers battled to stop trains in either direction from hitting her on the line. These scenes were extremely traumatic and those officers were left in complete shock despite doing their job to the best of their ability.

Ambulance call handlers are struggling to send ambulances out to the many in need and suffer having to listen to members of the public desperately begging for help knowing that there just aren’t enough crews out there.

For members of the public who moan about no police or the very long wait time for an ambulance, perhaps consider the impact this is having on the bluelight worker.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can often wait round the corner before it arrives. The brain goes on drive mode and there and then deals with the imminent danger and after the event a sense of relief is felt. It often takes time to allow the trauma to come forward. It can wait months and even years before it presents itself into your life.

Emergency service workers do not always have the ability to de-brief after a challenging situation or talk about what has happened, so the trauma gets shuffled backwards and goes on hold, stored in part of our brain that holds it until its ready to come out. People may deal with the immediate impact by perhaps having a few drinks and thinking that the following day will be better. Sadly however, trauma does not work that way, and it does not go until it begins to get processed.

Our brain is very much like a computer system in that it slots things perfectly into different compartments. Everything has its place and as such gets filed away into the right file when it is identified. The trauma takes place when the brain witnesses or experiences an event or events that do not fit what our brain acknowledges and knows to be correct. Warning signs flash through us subconsciously that we may not receive at the front of our brain but they are there letting us know that this experience is something we do not like and are struggling to make sense of. Here arrives our trauma in very basic terms.

The events witnessed on our streets today by our emergency service workers are frequently traumatic and they are dealing with these events day in and day out and after years of giving everything to their job, their brain can come to a point where it decides no more and it is time to stop.

For those who take pleasure in knocking our bluelight workers, one day’s work with any of the three services but particularly the police, will soon show you a reality that you will be very quick to want to leave behind.

It really is time now that the mental health of 999 workers, especially police officers is put forward on the agenda. The high level of ptsd amongst our officers is at a record high. The same way they always answer our call for help-we must now look to help them as a society and acknowledge that after years of giving everything to their job, they must now be rightly supported in return.