The Doreen Country Fire Authority [CFA] branch has celebrated the work of its volunteers, which includes people of all ages, walks of life and levels of experience, as part of National Volunteer Week this week.
Two members of the Doreen CFA branch were involved in a serious motor vehicle accident recently.
On his drive to support the crews on the scene of the accident, Doreen CFA captain Robert Bury decided it was time to initiate the CFA Volunteer Peer Support program.
“CFA has a particularly outstanding, probably the world’s best, practice peer system,” he said.
“I’ve got a group of people that are actually volunteers who go and do what we do and understand what we do, but they’re trained in the various facets of mental health and other issues.”
Captain Bury said the support of the peer support group goes beyond the means of the CFA and the service is offered to friends and family of the volunteers to ensure that the brigade prioritised the mental health of volunteers.
“Sometimes we’ll get called to something and if we know or have a feeling that it’s something that’s going to be a little bit nasty, we won’t send the younger or less experienced people, we’ll stand them down, which is part of triaging the mental health part as well,” he said.
“So we’re looking after people before we send them.
“But at times, we’ll go to what we believe is a very simple job and it will turn out to be quite nasty so we always try and advise people, if you don’t need to see it, don’t see it.”
Captain Bury said the CFA has encouraged community members to join and help where they can.
“We encourage people to come and volunteer because it’s not that terrible, but we’ve got support mechanisms, if it ever does,” he said.
“The work we do is rewarding.”
