The Ambulance Staff Charity
WPH CHARITABLE TRUST AWARDS £4,000 TO HELP AMBULANCE PERSONNEL
The Ambulance Staff Charity was launched in 2015 and supports the mental health, physical rehabilitation and financial wellbeing of UK ambulance crews. The majority of callers come from Coventry, Warwickshire and the West Midlands.
The team has seven full-time and five part-time staff, including two wellbeing advisers who are qualified mental health first and suicide first aiders supported by over 100 active volunteers.
They are the charity’s first point of contact, providing the necessary help for callers in immediate distress. Service users are offered four to six sessions of counselling to help stabilise their mental health for ongoing appropriate therapy with local specialists.
Last year costs exceeded £676,000 and the £4000 donation from WPH Charitable Trust.
will be used towards the upkeep of The Ambulance Staff Charity’s telephone support line and other services offered by its wellbeing team.
In 2021 the TASC staff were contacted over 4,300 times by people who concerned about their mental health, and provided over 3,800 mental health sessions.
That year it also provided 923 interventions reflecting a 94% increase on 2020.
Those who received financial support or advice were an average £374 a month better off, while more than £22,000 of debt was written off.
Staff who received injuries as a result of the physical challenges of the job benefited from 168 rehabilitation sessions.
Karl Demian, CEO of The Ambulance Staff Charity, said “The ambulance services and the people who work for them have been under unprecedented pressure over the last three years since Covid. There has been a 400% increase of calls between 2021/2020 and 2017/2018.
He said: “We are grateful for the support provided by WPH Charity. The grant of £4,000 will help us to continue to deliver our much-needed mental health support to those that care for us.”
