Front of Mind

About the program

First responders and frontline workers in the NSW public sector are repeatedly exposed to high-stress, traumatic incidents, bullying and harassment and are at a high risk of psychological injury. Two in five first responders will be diagnosed with a mental health condition in their lifetime (more than twice the national average).

While it is not possible to eliminate repeated exposure to high-stress incidents in these agencies, available evidence suggests it is possible to equip the workforce with the skills and support to slow or reverse the cumulative impact of trauma.

The Front of Mind Program is a five-year integrated initiative which commenced in July 2020. It involves collaboration between icare and a consortium of leading experts in mental health and four participating NSW agencies: Department of Communities and Justice, Fire and Rescue NSW, NSW Ambulance and NSW Police.

Front of Mind timeline

A five-year Blueprint acts as a guide to three phases of the Front of Mind Program: co-design with agencies and smaller- scale pilots of the interventions; testing the effectiveness of the interventions in trials; refinement to reflect evaluation findings in order to build the evidence for participating agencies to adopt, scale and/or replicate.

Program objectives

Front of Mind aims to develop a range of tailored, innovative interventions to reduce first responders and frontline worker’s risk and severity of psychological injury and associated injury claims. The initiative aims to put research-into-practice and using the knowledge generated over five years to address gaps in the research and provide agencies with new support services.

At the end of the five-year initiative, we aim to better understand and equip these agencies to integrate new evidence-informed mental health services for their workforce.

Program partners

icare delivers Front of Mind through a multi-partnership with mental health experts:

• Black Dog Institute (a consortium with the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and Phoenix Australia),
• The Matilda Centre at the University of Sydney.

A stepped-care approach 

• Early detection and intervention to optimise the mental health of frontline workers.
• Developing resilience in high-risk occupations.
• A multi-modal stepped-care model to address substance use across the spectrum of disorder development and severity.

Summary of projects

Front of Mind is a suite of interventions which provide prevention and early intervention support.