About us

Every month, hundreds of our people and their families use the Wellbeing and Support service offered by St John Ambulance WA.

The expanded service began in 2012, following a mandate to improve and grow its services, including increasing its staff.

Today, the Wellbeing and Support team empowers people around the state with sustainable strategies to safely and confidently own their mental health journey before, during and after any immediate points of support and intervention.

We foster confidence building, strategies to build and maintain resiliency and reduction in people’s sense of fragility, co-dependency and self-doubt. Our work is built on extensive research and consultation in Australia and internationally. This includes contemporary work such as the International Mental Health Collaborating Network, which believes people first need to take personal responsibility for their own mental health and their recovery journey so their unique goals, strengths and needs are respected.

Our team continues to encourage a deeper level of listening and learning across the St John workforce, as well as offering skills on well-being and expanding the external support and expertise available.

Through our comprehensive range of support options, we help employees, volunteers and families move through the stigma associated with mental illness.

Wellbeing and Support services

Our services include:

• confidential on-call support, 24 hours a day, every day of the year
• regular site visits, seminars and presentations to maintain ongoing awareness of services
• continued work to define, refine, and implement processes and education (in conjunction with Clinical Governance) concerning post-incident management (debriefing)
• sharing practical resources – such as distress and conversation cards – at depots, sub-centres and throughout the organisation
• annual education in mental health literacy for frontline workers
• dedicated space at the Belmont headquarters for all staff and volunteers to use for introspection, reflection and confidential discussions
• integrated processes for staff and volunteers to contact Wellbeing and Support, such as through personal leave forms
• running mental health awareness education every consistently at our training centre and throughout the six regions.

Education initiatives

Education plays a key role in both the Wellbeing and Support strategy and in our relationships with one another throughout the organisation.

We offer annual on-site psychological first aid education. This education is provided frequently in the St John Ambulance training centre and throughout all six regions.

The team also conducts psychological first aid units for all staff and volunteers, including regional volunteers, administrative staff, career paramedics, patient transport officers, State Operations Centre staff, and Event Health Services staff and volunteers through continuing education program (CEP) sessions.

Education initiatives are continuing to grow, including the introduction of family member and specific manager education.

Meet the team

The Wellbeing and Support team is committed to the continued well-being of our staff and volunteers. The team works to educate, to provide immediate support and to link St John staff, volunteers and family members to appropriate services.

Find out more about the team below:

• Stephanie Hemsley – Wellbeing and Support Manager
• Esta May – Wellbeing and Support Coordinator
• Gemma Wagstaff – Wellbeing and Support Coordinator
• Lana Smith – Wellbeing and Support Coordinator
• Magdaliene Hadjielias – Wellbeing and Support Coordinator
• Debbie Johansen – Wellbeing and Support Admin

Feedback and Testimonials

Wellbeing and Support values feedback and strives to ensure support, training and discussions are relevant to our people and founded in the latest, evidence-based research.  Here are some recent testimonials and feedback received for 2019:

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