Content warning: This story contains topics such as mental ill health and suicide and may be distressing for some readers.
With Beyond Blue’s landmark 2018 study, Answering the Call, revealing damning data on the mental health of emergency service employees and volunteers and the loss of numerous mates to suicide, Tony Pearce, Chair of the Emergency Services Foundation (ESF), and Victoria’s Inspector General for Emergency Management, decided to do something about it.
Pearce is walking 1440 kilometres to raise vital awareness of mental health in the emergency services sector, with the 40-year emergency service member stepping off from Melbourne on March 10, beginning his 54-day journey.
“I was concerned about the degree to which our people were having their mental health impacted, so I thought there was an opportunity for our foundation, the emergency services foundation, to be able to do some work in the space of actually helping to raise awareness of the impact on our volunteers and paid staff,” Mr Pearce said.
“Recognising that they are not just people in uniform, they’re your family, they’re our families, they’re community members as well, not just emergency workers.”
Answering the Call, Beyond Blue’s National Mental Health and Wellbeing Study of Police and Emergency Services, creating the first-ever baseline of national prevalence data and confirmation of key protective and risk factors experienced by police and emergency services personnel, revealed anecdotal evidence that police and emergency services personnel are at greater risk of experiencing a mental health condition.
The national study heard the collective voice of 21,014 people working in police and emergency services, finding that one in every three employees experiences high or very high psychological distress, significantly higher than the national average of one in every eight adults.
Answering the Call revealed police and emergency service employees and volunteers are more than twice as likely to have suicidal thoughts as the general population and are more than three times more likely to have a suicide plan, with more than half of all employees indicating that they had experienced a traumatic event that had deeply affected them during the course of their work.
“Answering the Call highlights that in every metric, emergency service workers are impacted far greater in their mental health than the broader Australian community,” Mr Pearce said.
“When I looked at that, and I’ve had some friends who’ve taken their own lives, unfortunately, I had another one more recently who did similarly, I thought it’s an opportunity for me now to do something because I can.
“So I decided that something really big, otherwise it won’t get attention, so the walk was the idea, 1500 kilometres, then people go “Why would you do that?”. There’s the bone, you’ve got them, and then it gives me the opportunity to talk to everyone about exactly what it is and what the issues are.”
Mr Pearce will travel through many areas impacted by the 2019-2020 bushfires, on his almost 1500-kilometre journey from the State Control Centre in Melbourne to Mallacoota, across the Alpine Range to Wodonga, and back to Melbourne, recognising the impact that severe fire events such as these can have on emergency services workers and community members alike.
“Very often people forget, those in big emergencies too like the fires in 2019-2020 and the floods and so on, that emergency service workers places, their families are being decimated and impacted exactly the same way as yours or mine or others are, and yet they are still out there doing that, but that brings a very heavy toll,” Mr Pearce said.
The Chair of the Emergency Services Foundation and Victoria’s Inspector General for Emergency Management, Tony Pearce, reached Sale on Thursday, March 16 and was greeted by Sale CFA representatives, alongside local representatives from Ambulance Victoria, SES, Victoria Police and Surf Life Saving Victoria at Pearsons Bridge.
Local police and emergency services representatives accompanied Mr Pearce past the police station, into Gippsland Shopping Centre and to the Sale CFA Fire Station on Raymond Street, where they enjoyed afternoon tea hosted by the Rotary Club of Sale.
Enjoying party pies fresh from the oven and colourful jelly snakes, Mr Pearce reported he was in good shape, surpassing 200 kilometres into his 1440-kilometre journey.
“It’s going alright,” he said.
“My legs are holding up really well, which is fantastic. I do get sore at the end of the day.
“The heat is actually having a bit of an impact; it’s warmer than I anticipated it was going to be at the moment, so we’ve had a few warm days to start with, and that sort of has a bit of an impact later in the day but other than that, physically I am going pretty well.
“Just fingers crossed, if I can keep going, I’ll be very happy.”
With eight pairs of sneakers, specifically designed by podiatrists to support a variety of different types of walks and having been joined by an emergency service worker every day so far, sharing their personal mental health stories along the way, Mr Pearce is on track to completing the almost 1500-kilometre walk for emergency services mental health on April 30.
Wellington Shire Council Mayor, Ian Bye, joined Mr Pearce, local police and emergency services representatives for afternoon tea at the Sale CFA station on Thursday, where Sale CFA presented Mr Pearce with a $500 cheque showing the local police and emergency services support for his cause.
“I am grateful to have been invited to take part in Tony’s Trek,” Cr Bye said.
“Tony’s work to deliver prevention-focused mental health initiatives in partnership with the Emergency Services Foundation hits close to home for many people in our community.
“We all remember the devastation from the Black Summer bushfires, and I know from conversations with local emergency service volunteers that the load they carry is huge.
“I encourage our community to visit the Emergency Services Foundation’s website to follow Tony’s story, and I thank Tony and his team for including Sale on their journey and wish them luck on their next 1,200 odd kilometres.”
Mr Pearce spent two nights in Sale, departing Sale on Saturday, March 18, with Mansi On Raymond donating accommodation and Element @ Mansi throwing in a free massage.
Help is available at Lifeline on 13 11 14.
