You can now secure your place at ESF’s annual Mental Health Showcase on 16 October 2025. This flagship event brings together around 180 people from across Victoria’s emergency services – staff, volunteers, peers, chaplains, and others passionate about supporting the mental health and wellbeing of our 139,000-strong sector.
Designed by people within the sector, this one-day gathering is a chance to connect, collaborate and be inspired. Attendees will explore emerging mental health issues, hear from leading experts and practitioners, and take away practical ideas to improve their own practice.
The 2025 program will feature powerful topics including post-traumatic growth, empathetic distress fatigue, family wellbeing, the far-reaching impact of suicide, and psychedelics as a new frontier in treatment.
Whether you’re looking to learn, share experiences, or help shape the future of mental health in emergency services, the Mental Health Showcase is the place to be.
Purchase your tickets now via this link.
Topics explored on the day include:
The Emergency Services Foundation hosted the third Annual Mental Health Showcase at Lifesaving Victoria in Port Melbourne on the 11th of October 2024. The event brought together around 180 staff and volunteers, including peers and chaplains, and others with an interest in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of the 139,000 people working across Victoria’s emergency service sector. This event was supported by WorkSafe Victoria. ESF offered 55 funded places for sector volunteers and accommodation for 40 regional volunteers through the support of the Victorian Government.
About this event
Designed by people within the sector, this bespoke event provided opportunity to:
- Network with likeminded colleagues from 15 emergency service agencies
- Learn from experts and leading practitioners
- Reflect and discuss emerging mental health and wellbeing issues for our sector
- Collaborate and be inspired
- Take away ideas to improve practice
The Emergency Services Foundation hosted our second Mental Health Showcase at Lifesaving Victoria in Port Melbourne on the 4th of October 2023. The event brought together 180 staff and volunteers with an interest in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of the 139,000 people working across Victoria’s emergency service sector.
About this event
KEY TOPICS COVERED
- Resilience is a concept that does more harm than good
- Revisiting Answering the Call – What’s changed and what next in terms of data collection?
- Work Design
- Impact on the workplace of domestic violence
- Impact on the workplace of divorce trauma
- Compassion fatigue
- Recruitment – how can it be used to build credibility and reputation of the program?
Refresher training – what are we doing that can be shared? - Peer issues discussion – How could I be a better peer?
- Harnessing the value of lived experience
Speaker Presentations’ (slides)
- Work Design from Judy Chi and Dale McQualter
- Answering the Call Key Findings
- Rebecca Lynch and Shannon Hood podcast on Moral Inquiry – Listen on Apple Podcast or Spotify
The Emergency Services Foundation was pleased to host our inaugural Better Together Mental Health Showcase in Melbourne on 28 and 29 March 2022.
This unique event brought together emergency management wellbeing teams and peer leaders from across the state with experts to share, discuss, challenge, reflect, and apply.
About this event
This event was not an ordinary conference, as it was tactical in focus. It provided the opportunity to learn from people who face the same workplace wellbeing challenges as their fellow delegates. It offered a chance to reflect on and tackle some big questions with people from across the sector and be inspired by the work of others.
KEY TOPICS COVERED
- What’s happening out there – a world view of prevention and early intervention initiatives
- How to tell if it’s working – options for evaluation
- Showcase of leading practice prevention and peer initiatives
- What did COVID teach us about wellbeing?
- What are the emerging trends in workplace wellbeing?
- How can we do more for those who keep the home fires burning?
- What does a best practice peer program look like?
- Peer deployment and the IMT system
- A multi-agency peer program – how would that work?
Speaker Presentations’ (slides)
- Dr Tessa Bailey – Managing Excessive Workloads
- Dr Brad Astbury – Options for Program Evaluation
- Dr Stacy Jenkins – Options for Program Evaluation
- Prof Jane Burns – Emerging trends in workplace wellbeing
- Matthew Richman – A Multi-Agency Peer Program – how would that work?
- Prof Sharon Lawn – Families Guide Workshop
ESF acknowledges the support of the Victoria State Government in the development and running of the Mental Health Showcase.
