CFRS Wellbeing Hub

Please see the clips from our Oct 2024 Menopause Café, hosted in collaboration with Cumbria Police, UNISON, and the FBU, with guest speaker Dr Cath Munro. 

Please also find the full transcript attached here: Transcript (WORD)

Please find a copy of Dr Cath Munro's slides here: Menopause Café Slides (PowerPoint)

Menopause Café with Dr Cath Munro video clips, parts 1 to 11:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Earlier this year (2024), we published our Menopause Policy, please see attached below. 

Document: Menopause Policy (WORD)

The aim of this policy is to encourage an environment where individuals experiencing menopause symptoms feel confident enough to raise any issues and enquire about adjustments at work. The menopause is a natural stage of life for a person with a female reproductive system. Cumbria Fire & Rescue Service is aiming to promote a greater understanding of the menopause and we are clear on eradicating any exclusionary or discriminatory practices. This policy also aims to provide useful guidance for employees impacted by family members who are going through menopause.

If you have any questions about the policy, please contact Wellbeing@cumbriafire.gov.uk 

Note: If you are an employee supporting a colleague or direct report with Menopause and Hormonal changes, please contact our HR team. 

The Fire Fighters Charity is an incredible resource for Menopause support, information, and courses, and these can be accessed by anyone employed by a Fire and Rescue Service and any loved ones or family members. Therefore, if you have a family member, partner, or close friend experience Menopause or Hormonal Changes, you can utilise the below.

• Menopause Awareness Webinar - link here (YouTube)
• Menopause online course - 6 week programme - link here (scroll to the Menopause course)
• Bitesize Menopause resources - taking just a few minutes to complete, but with valuable tips - link here (takes you to the start of the bitesize information)
• Menopause key coping strategies: link here
• Menopause symptoms, impact and tips: link here
• Menopause - How to offer someone support - link here
• Supporting the Menopause Workshop Handout (PDF)

The Fire Fighters Charity also offers residential programmes, please see the link to the 23/24 calendar linked below and this also links to the enquiry form. 

Link to Residential Courses here

The calendar for 2025 is launching shortly and we will share the dates for any Menopause Weeks asap. 

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU), with the assistance of the National Women’s Committee and the Institute of Occupational Medicine, have developed a good practice guide to give assistance to representatives and officials who may need to provide advice to members.

Please see the link to the document here

The document details the way members can be helped in the workplace; although it should be recognised that this is a very personal experience and different levels of support may be needed. Further information for members can be sought from a representative of the Fire Brigades Union for advice.

Please use the below link to access information on the work UNISON is doing to support employees in public services with the Menopause. 

Link here

This link includes information on how to access Member learning courses and activist workshops, as well as how to get involved with the Menopause campaign. Further information for members can be sought from a representative of UNISON for advice.

We currently have 18 Mental Health First Aiders across our service who staff can contact for someone to listen to them and show them where support is. 

For Internal Staff: To contact a Mental Health First Aider, please go to the Fire Hub SharePoint > Help and Support > Health and Wellbeing > Mental Health First aiders. 

Pictured below are our MH First Aiders after they completed their training in June 2024. Thank you to the brilliant Claire from Venture who delivered this training. 

CFRS Mental Health Working Group meet monthly and if you would like to join these meetings, please contact Orlanda Wright (Resourcing, Talent, and Wellbeing Lead) on orlanda.wright@cumbriafire.gov.uk or Wellbeing@cumbriafire.gov.uk for more information. 

Future Meeting Dates - TBC

We are very excited to be working on a Mental Health and Wellbeing app that will be accessible to all staff, family members, and loved ones. 

More information to follow shortly! 

Please see the below key links for the FireFighters Charity web pages:

The Fire Fighters Charity - Changing The Lives Of Our Fire Fighting Heroes (Main site)

Wellbeing Webinars and Workshops

We have a dedicated section of our Employee Pages for all staff, which can be found at the link here.

We have a dedicated section of our Employee Pages for Managers, which can be found at the link here.

Information regarding Critical Incident Debriefs will be added here shortly.

The Occupational Health Service operates an employee self-referral scheme for counselling.

Please note counselling can be provided as an interim measure of support while the employee seeks longer term treatment and support through First Step. The First Step contact details are:

Telephone:  03001 239122

Email:    firststep@nhs.net 

Web:     www.cumbriapartnership.nhs.uk 

Once your referral has been triaged then you will be referred to a counsellor initially for up to four sessions.

Link: Self Referral for Counselling Portal Guidance (WORD)

Link: Occupational Health Portal

Please note: The Occupational Health Service is currently a hosted service, with Westmorland and Furness Council. For their dedicated pages, please go to this link: Occupational Health

Able Futures is an organisation that offers support for mental health at work. It is a nationwide specialist partnership set up to provide the Access to Work Mental Health Support Service on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Able Futures has a number of ways to support organisations, including helping employers manager mental health at work. 

Please see key documents below or contact HR (HR@cumbriafire.gov.uk) for more information:

Able Futures Employer Toolkit - Mental Health at Work (PDF)

Welcome to Able Futures (PDF)

Able Futures Support for Carers (PDF)

Reasonable Adjustments (PDF)

Requesting Reasonable Adjustments (PDF)

January 2024 - Able Futures Interactive Documents

Mental Health at Work Calendar (PDF)

Time To Talk Quiz (PDF)

February 2024 - Able Futures Interactive Documents

Random Acts of Kindness 29 Days (PDF)

Random Acts of Kindness Colouring Page (PDF)

March 2024 - Able Futures Interactive Documents

World Sleep Day - Epworth Sleepiness Scale (PDF)

World Sleep Day - 10 Tips (PDF)

World Sleep Day Colouring Page (PDF)

April 2024 - Able Futures Interactive Documents

Stress Awareness Colouring (PDF)

Stress Buster #Littlebylittle (PDF)

Stress Tips #Littlebylittle (PDF)

30 Day Stress Awareness Challenge (PDF)

May 2024 - Able Futures Interactive Documents

31 Days of Movement Challenge (PDF)

Mental Health Awareness Week Colouring (PDF)

5 Ways to Wellbeing (PDF)

Daily DOSE Challenge (PDF)

June 2024 - Able Futures Interactive Documents

Reasonable Adjustments Colouring (PDF)

Coming soon!