This chapter presents a framework for caring for the mental health of staff who respond to the healthcare needs of people who are affected by emergencies, incidents, disasters, and disease outbreaks (EIDD) and conflict. The COVID-19 pandemic has crystallised concerns about how staff employed in demanding occupations cope with the emotional, cognitive, social, physical, relationship, moral, and spiritual challenges that they face. This framework is applicable to all types of EIDD. The chapter begins with a ‘postcard’ written by one of the authors, who has worked with staff of an intensive care unit throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The chapter develops the framework. The authors reproduce material that they wrote for the Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Reference is also made to an approach commended here with reference to caring for staff of Blue Light services, and to peer support.

The editors create an agenda of themes for developing services and practitioners, and for research capable of responding to psychosocial aspects of emergencies, incidents, disasters, and disease outbreaks (EIDD) and their deleterious effects. Topics include the perspectives of scientists, practitioners, and the public, the historical importance of how current capabilities have developed, the critical theme of agreeing definitions, recognising the wellbeing, psychosocial, and mental health agendas that face survivors of EIDD in their recovery, the fallacies of basing planning on panic and the belief that survivors of subsequent EIDD fare better than first timers, and the importance of good communication within and between agencies and then with the public, and of teams and their leadership. It recognises the lessons from the social sciences, and the importance of social support, psychological safety, and our relationships in our recovery. This book strongly supports the notion that there is no health without mental health.