Lifelines Scotland

Evaluation

Our latest Evaluation report demonstrates that the Lifelines model, based on clinical wisdom and international research, has led the way, and continues to be at the forefront of best practice.

It provides feedback on how we have provided knowledge and skills to individuals to transcend challenge alongside the confidence to approach and connect with others; and our work with organisations to create supportive workplace environments.

It shows what can be achieved with a limited resource if you have passion and a commitment to partnership working across the public sector.

We have provided on this page a summary of quotes, key points, training testimonials and recommendations from the report.
Cover of report
Screen of the 10 essentials film

“We are excited and proud to share the achievements of the Lifelines community over the last 5 years. We hope it inspires you as much as it does us.”

Gill Moreton
Project Lead, Lifelines Scotland
Two police officers on Skye

“I could tell that everybody took so much away and had conversations with people following the course.  I was really proud and really happy with the outcome, if I’m honest, it went really well.”

Police Scotland staff member

“The training was relaxed, which helped me to focus on what was being said.  Informative – I was glad to be able to learn new skills to help myself and others.  Friendly – everyone on the group meeting was friendly and approachable.”

Ambulance Service staff member
Fire service staff in training

"Opened my eyes to the subject of mental health and being a good manager... Insightful and life-saving training.”

Fire Service staff member
Mountain rescue staff carrying stretcher down hill

"The training helped me realise that I do have good coping mechanisms, good protective armour, and like the training says, I am OK most of the time.”

Volunteer responder
Prsion hall

“The website is very well done and it’s logical to work through. Excellent, clear, easily relatable information and advice for the service... Thank you.”

Prison Service staff member

In the five-year period covered by the evaluation  report, there has been an ever-increasing interest in mental health and the emergency services, reflected in the activities of the blue light charities, the Royal Foundation and the Inspectorates of Constabulary and Fire in Scotland. 

We think of the Lifelines team as small but mighty. At peak staffing we had the equivalent of three wholetime trainers working across ambulance, fire, police, and the volunteer responder organisations.

The report shows what can be achieved with a limited resource if you have passion and a commitment to partnership working across the public sector.

There is so much to celebrate. Almost 2000 Lifelines peer supporters and more than 100 Lifelines Facilitators who are delivering the courses internally, helping even more people understand how to look after themselves and their colleagues.

All new recruits to ambulance, fire, and police now begin their career with training on how they can stay well in a challenging role and a few months ago, we extended our partnership to the Scottish prison service.

The report provides evidence of the progress we have made towards achieving our objectives listed below.

  1. To promote a national conversation about the wellbeing of current and retired emergency service staff, volunteers, and their families.
  2. To take a public health focus on prevention and early intervention reaching the widest possible audience. 
  3. To recognise that psychological injury is a risk for emergency service staff and volunteers so we can anticipate and mitigate its impact, challenge stigma and help people access support if they are injured.
  4. To maximise the social support that already exists between colleagues and within organisations by training as many people as possible to be a supportive colleague or manager.
  5. To provide dedicated web resources for emergency service staff and volunteers based on clinical experience and best practice. 
  6. To create resources for family and friends (and also employers with staff who volunteer as responders) in recognition of the essential role they play in the emergency service community and the potential impact on their wellbeing.
  7. To work with organisations so that an understanding of psychological wellbeing and resilience is integrated and mainstreamed within policies and procedures. 
  8. To embed training in resilience, peer and post trauma support in the services’ core curricula from recruitment to retirement and for those in leadership roles creating bespoke materials and providing a train-the-trainer (facilitator) model.
  9. To deliver multi-agency learning opportunities to reinforce the mutual support and trust that exists across the emergency service community in Scotland.

Training Testimonials

About improved self-care
"I often draw on the concept of my protective armour (and use the) principles of staying well to understand my triggers and (know) when I need to take time for myself, for self-care."

"I find I now take much more care of myself. I will do daily stuff first thing as soon as I get up, I just take 5-10 minutes to meditate. Yeah, I’ve definitely noticed, I do take care of myself a lot more."

"After a difficult day, (I now) go out for a walk, which I would never normally do, I would just switch the telly on. I think getting a bit of exercise is good, clearing my mind."
Using learning to support colleagues better
"There have been another couple of things bothering team members and I’m happy (they have) come and talked to me. That’s been, not a revelation, but I suppose in the previous year, I wasn’t that much of an approachable person. I think I’ve improved maybe, and the courses have certainly helped from a listening point of view."

"I had two quick fire fatalities over the space of two or three days. I found a lot of what we learned on the courses to be helpful to help the guys and girls on my shift understand what was normal in terms of the reactions they were going to experience."

"I found the training very helpful and gave me the confidence to give advice to a colleague recently who was struggling with some family issues and (their own) mental health."

"I’ve been able to support a number of individuals who have approached me, and this was made possible due to the learning, awareness, and confidence gained from undertaking the Lifelines courses"

"I found it massively beneficial (as a manager). As you kind of scrape away and delve deeper into their wellbeing, you tend to find that there are far more correlations now between people's attendance at work, to their health and things that are happening in their lives."
Recognising when you need to step back
"I think the hardest thing sometimes is the burden you can feel when people share stuff with you. The Lifelines courses definitely let you recognize when your resilience is being tested and you’re maybe taking on too much of other people’s issues."
Changing culture
"At the start of our senior management team meetings we have inclusion moments and I said I’d like to do something that is a kind of reflection. I found on your website a poem for the family and friends of responders and I just thought it brings a tear to your glass eye. It’s a very simple poem, but it’s actually really powerful. I think it’s just those kind of reflection moments of what are trying to do here, you know, what is this all about? I just think it sets a decent tone."

"I feel that the introduction of Lifelines training has greatly supported our drive towards ensuring a culture where colleagues can feel that they are supported and where they feel they can ask for support when they need it."

"Previously we weren't doing any preventative work to build resilience, or educational/awareness-raising work to help people acknowledge when they may be experiencing a build-up of stressor seeing this in colleagues, or to help them deal with (potentially) traumatic events when they occur."
Impact on absence management
"Over the last 12 months, we have (reduced our absence figures and) achieved a position where we are in line with other teams in our region, across all absence types, and lower than several other areas.  Given the increased demands on our teams, compared to others, I feel this is a significant achievement. I have no doubt that Lifelines is a key contributory factor."  

"I strongly believe that building resilience and support for our teams is vital, given that as emergency responders we know that dealing with trauma is an unavoidable part of our day-to-day business. Prior to the introduction of Lifelines, I do not feel that we were looking at welfare from this important angle."
Building a peer support network
"Our volunteer Peer Support Network was established in 2023 and Lifelines  was absolutely central to that. Lifelines prompted a conversation about the need for a network and the training provided to our volunteers allowed us to get this off the ground. Educating volunteers on the importance of understanding how to stay well and support their peers is viewed now as just as essential a part of their training as the practical, role-specific training they undertake with us."

"Lifelines Scotland has provided us with specific resources and training suitable for our volunteers. It has encouraged positive conversations about wellbeing, the importance of self-care and how to support teammates.  The training has also educated our volunteers on incidents that could be potentially traumatic, allowing us to take a proactive approach in dealing with these challenging scenarios. The resources available via the Lifelines website have also become a ‘go-to’ for our volunteers."
Supporting organisational change
"Since our first engagement with Lifelines in 2016 we have seen a positive shift with our volunteers ..... and conversations about wellbeing are happening within and between teams. Wellbeing and psychological safety is now integrated into many national training courses. Lifelines provides a strong foundation to our overall approach .... from recruitment to retirement."

"Lifelines has played a significant part in bringing our volunteers on board and is helping to create a positive narrative around the risks of psychological injury."

"Providing Lifelines training to our staff has given them the tools to build on their resilience, while understanding that sometimes it’s ok to not be ok. It has deepened the organisation’s commitment to supporting the wellbeing of our staff and provided practical learning for our staff to support them in their often-challenging roles. At an organisational level, Lifelines supported us in the creation of our First Line Manager’s Wellbeing Guide, which collated all relevant information into a single document to support our managers and their staff, and we now have Facilitators within the Service who have delivered the Lifelines courses to the Senior Management Team."
Across the UK
"Scotland has knocked it out of the park. The Royal Foundation wanted people to come together to look at wellbeing on a strategic and operational level. Lifelines has already done this. They’ve brought together the 3 emergency services, plus search and rescue and the volunteers, together with the NHS and support from Scottish Government and the charities. They’ve delivered a digital gateway and training across the services. Lifelines has punched way above their weight."

"Lifelines was one of the first partners to the Working Minds campaign and they bring an extended network of expertise and experience. We can’t replicate their understanding of the emergency service sector and the ability to develop solutions tailored to the sector’s needs, that’s why the partnership is hugely important."

Recommendations

To ensure Lifelines Scotland stays at the forefront of best practice, the report concludes with the following recommendations...

  1. Increase engagement with the Lifelines project at an executive / strategic level to support partnership working.
  2. Share the evaluation report with all relevant parties to promote further collaboration across the public sector in Scotland. 
  3. Interventions to support the wellbeing
    of the emergency service community should be evidence-based. 
  4. Interventions should address the organisational factors that threaten responder wellbeing and not focus solely on trauma exposure.  
  5. Secure recurring funding.
  6. Set up a training dashboard for the Lifelines Scotland courses. 
  7. Continue to evaluate training programme
    and explore opportunities to assess wider impact.
  8. The Lifelines 10 Essentials to be used as a framework for mental health and wellbeing initiatives with the emergency responder community. 

It is essential we secure continued funding and gain maximum benefit and value from the public money and people hours invested over the last 5 years, and avoid re-inventing a (potentially less effective) wheel.

We need to build on the success of the Lifelines project and promote it as an example of effective public sector partnership.

"I think because (Lifelines) is NHS, and people have a huge amount of faith in the NHS. The fact that it’s supported by that and it’s for all emergency services, is already a winner for people. They’ve got greater faith in it and a greater buy in on that basis."
“I think Lifelines provides what we need – it’s proactive.  Everything else is at the bottom of the waterfall pulling our people out whereas Lifelines is trying to stop them getting to that point.”
"It’s a no brainer for me and it’s something that I am hugely, passionately supportive of because I can see the benefit - this is the missing link. My son is in the job, I’ve skin in the game. I made sure he did his Lifelines training because this is the stuff that was missing 35 years ago when I joined."

Search