Northamptonshire firefighters help youth struggling with mental health

Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) has teamed up with a local project to support young people with mental health issues.

NFRS has partnered with Growth and Inclusion North Northamptonshire (GAINN), a Community Lottery Funded Project, to trial a three-day course teaching life skills to young people struggling with social isolation, anxiety and other issues.

The course has been designed to form a safe space and positive learning environment to help encourage communication skills with workshops, discussions, and practical scenarios.

Unofficially named by the young attendants as ‘Communication at the Station’, the course was held at Kettering Fire Station.

Lisa Bryan, prevention, safeguarding and partnerships manager at NFRS said: “Delivering targeted interventions to young people using practical firefighting skills helps to build personal strengths, resilience and skills that will enable young people to contribute positively to society and cope better with challenges in later life.”

The scheme had 10 young people involved that carried out fire service drills, as well as being introduced to the firefighting kit before handling a mock-up traffic incident.

Putting their abilities to the test by having to handle the manakin casualties and reporting back to the station under pressure.

They were also taught the importance of fire safety at home as well as first aid.

GAINN aims to support those between 17 and 24 with mental health issues to break their boundaries holding them back and their future in education and employment.

Jo Dale, programme manager at GAINN said: “This course has motivated and inspired my young people to achieve so much more than that.

“They became a strong team, found communication skills that we had never seen before and learnt so much and they really enjoyed the physical challenges.”

Maxine, one of the young people who got involved in the scheme, shared on social media: “I have struggled with communication for ages and this course really brought out the importance of communication within normal day to day life.

“I look forward to hopefully growing to gain a career in becoming a firefighter and hoping to save lives and to keep others around me safe."