Dubbo paramedics speak about mental health for R U OK? Day

It's an attitude that Dubbo's paramedics are slowly but surely seeing change.

Paramedic Scott Ferrari makes a point to check in on the mental health and welfare of his colleagues around the station.

"In this job when new people start I say you've always got to look after your head and your back because either of them will end your career," Mr Ferrari said.

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Conversations while playing table tennis, or mentioning his own bad day often help him get others to open up after their own struggles.

"Society at the moment is struggling. There's no more normal. But there are those little one per cents like getting out of the house, the sun being out, they all line up. But sometimes those one per cent things all go against you and all of a sudden you've got a problem," the paramedic said.

For the ambulance officers, there are a range of supports in place from a chaplain to peer support officers, and debriefs are held after jobs that could be traumatic.

It's all creating a culture that allows emotions to be freely spoken about.

"We had a job this year and I said 'I nearly cried on that job' because it was such an emotional job and then Scott said 'I nearly did too' and then when we're talking to the inspector about it he said 'I can't even look at you guys because I feel like I'm going to cry'," station officer Jason Moffit said.

Mr Moffit said the paramedics were ordinary people - husbands, wives and parents - who were tasked with doing an extraordinary job.

"We're put under those extra pressures from our job. Like we see death every day and we see families torn apart and all that stuff does affect us... There are some people who are good at opening up, but we've still got a long way to go," he said.

Mr Ferrari said it was normally after the job was finished that the "wave" hit.

"It's that 24 to 72 hours later once the lights go out and it's dark and quiet that you start to run through it," he said.

Dubbo Ambulance Station's duty operations manager Adam Parker is also a peer support officer. He gets regular mental health training.

"I know I've been in jobs in the last few years where I've driven away, or I've been with the crews afterwards talking about it and I've been quite emotional. Once upon a time that would have been frowned upon," he said.

Mental health support is also available for their families.

Looking back, Mr Parker admits his family would have been affected by his work, especially during the early days.

Outside of the station, lockdown is also having an affect on people's mental health.

There has already been an increase in mental health-related calls but Mr Parker doesn't think we've seen the worst of it yet.

Even after the lockdown ends, he's expecting it to have lasting mental health affects.

But at the end of the day, he considers himself one of the lucky ones.

"I've thought about it and I could come to work today, and you could hit me with anything and I'd still be more grateful than ever that I've got a job to go to. You speak to people who have their own small businesses and a lot of them don't even know if they're going to be able to go back to it," Mr Parker said.

"I couldn't imagine being in a situation at the moment where I was struggling to work out how to pay rent, how to look after the kids, how I'm going to get petrol in the car, because there's no income.

"We had a chat with my wife's mum the other night and we were only talking for three of four minutes and she just broke down because she hasn't seen us or our kids for months now. And I just feel lucky we can communicate even though we can't physically be together.

"I imagine there must be so many people out there who are just so lonely and isolated who i think would really, really be struggling. And we probably won't even find out about a lot of those sorts of people."

For R U OK? Day, Mr Parker's reminding everyone to take a moment to reach out to loved ones.

"For me, it's important for people to know the importance of reaching out to people, the importance of making contact with people. You can't check in on someone enough," he said.

Mr Ferrari reiterated the need for connection.

"A text message is so simple. It takes 10 seconds but it could change someone's day. That's the thing, it's such a simple act but you don't know what effect it will have at the other end," he said.

While he was big on promoting R U OK? Day throughout the station, Mr Ferrari said checking in was important every day of the year.

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