How can the Rescue Benevolent Fund help support you?
© Will Close Ash.
What the fund can do for you, how to apply and donate, and news of the additional support we offer, including online and telephone counselling
From the archive: Mountain Rescue Magazine Autumn Issue 78, October 2021: Judy Whiteside explored the treatment options.
We’ve had a working agreement with the Fire Fighters Charity (FFC) from the start. This is thanks to one of our regional reps, Laura Connolly, who works at one of their centres as a physiotherapist. It’s a fruitful relationship and a number of you have benefited from the physical rehab they offer after injury, fully supported by the fund.
This July, they have extended their offering to us. Prompted by Covid-19 lockdowns and the limitations of the pandemic, with people no longer able to take advantage of their residential services, they looked at how they could offer their services online. This new way of working more flexibly is something team members and their families are able to access more easily, getting the help they need sooner.
And there is still the option to spend four days at one of their residential centres, ideal for anyone needing physical rehabilitation and care to get them back on their feet and active again.
Blended physical health and wellbeing support
Their ‘blended health and wellbeing support’ is tailored to the individual with a number of different options. Both physical and psychological conditions are provided for using the residential centres and/or their new digital platforms, personalised to enhance recovery.
There are three residential centres around the country. Clients with a predominantly physical health need are invited to either Marine Court in West Sussex or Jubilee House in Penrith, which also houses a dedicated nursing team. The physical programme is in groups plus one-to-one interventions in physiotherapy, exercise, gym, swimming or hydrotherapy sessions and wellbeing workshops.
Harcombe House, in Devon, deals with psychological health referrals or long-term physical health issues. The programme is in groups along with workshops, mindfulness, physiotherapy, exercise, gym, pool and hydrotherapy sessions.
And don’t be put off by the prospect of a long journey to the opposite end of the country. If we agree to support your care and you live outside a fifty-mile radius, we’ll support your travel expenses too.
Additional online support for physical therapies
The major change to the ‘blended’ package offered is in additional online support. Those we refer for physical or psychological wellbeing can also expect to access online digital physical health and wellbeing.
Following an initial consultation to assess need, support might include online or telephone physiotherapy, with up to three follow-up sessions. Exercises may also be prescribed using a digital exercise programme.
Online and telephone psychological care
They also offer the opportunity for online psychological health and wellbeing. So, if you need psychological counselling and feel unable to access this with a local therapist, this might offer a way forward.
This support is in a series of online or telephone counselling sessions — an initial assessment with up to five sessions.
The process for all of this is to first apply to the fund for our support. Once we’ve agreed to support you, we refer you to the FFC. A clinician then calls you for an initial assessment, agrees a course of treatment and lets us know you’re in the system. Then it’s over to you — with us keeping a watchful eye on your progress and picking up the bill.
Finding support local to you
But what happens if you need more immediate specialist psychological care? Well, once we’ve agreed to support you, we work with you and whoever sponsored your application, to secure the best possible treatment. If this involves you seeing someone locally, we will liaise with the therapists and clinicians in question. We also pay their bills direct.
Our philosophy is about getting you back to a better sense of wellbeing, and making that process as pain free as we possibly can for you.
What other support can we offer?
Of course, it may be that you don’t require physical or mental health rehab and care. Over our first eight years ‘in business’, we have also helped team members with immediate financial help as they await insurance pay-out. We’ve also supported families with funeral costs for a team member’s death ‘in duty’.
Following the Patterdale incident, we looked at how we could help in future, should a similar incident occur where a team member need more sustained intensive care and support. While the fund is able to support the claims we’ve received to date, we don’t hold the sort of money that type of claim might require. But that doesn’t preclude our support.
Our constitution allows us to fundraise for particular circumstances, and we would be happy to do so. So please don’t discount our ability to help on a larger scale without talking to us first to discuss the possibilities.
Where do our operational boundaries lie?
Would we be prepared to support a team member claiming from outside England and Wales? Again, our constitution is such that we’re not defined by geographical area so, in theory, yes. Just as, incidentally, we’d be happy to accept donations from outside England and Wales!
Founded through a collaboration between MREW and BCRC, we already cover a far wider area than MREW territory alone. Many teams work on incidents and train with teams in Scotland and Ireland.
The process would be the same, assessed on the same criteria as any other. We always consider whether other claims are in place to cover the same injury, be that insurance or other benevolent funds.
How do you claim?
Email secretary@rescuebenevolent.fund for an application form. We can’t do anything until we receive that and know what we’re dealing with. Be aware that enquiries via my editor@mountain.rescue.org.uk address may be accessible to other eyes (in perpetuity).
We aim to acknowledge receipt within a couple of days, and call a meeting of the trustees at the earliest opportunity. Sometimes we are able to make a decision within the week. Often, we involve the fund’s regional reps, who are only privy to redacted details to preserve confidentiality.
The final decision lies with the trustees. If the claim is complex, we may ask for more detail but aim to keep you informed every step of the way.
Do MREW and BCRC influence the fund and its decision making?
In a word, no. While those two organisations provided the drive for a dedicated benevolent fund, any decisions are made solely by the fund’s trustees.
Will details of my claim be shared with MREW or BCRC, or made public?
Again, no. We are an independent charity and not obliged to share information. All claims are treated with the utmost confidentiality, and the trustees and reps sign confidentiality agreements.
If an incident is high profile, we apply the rules of confidentiality as far as is possible. We may also ask claimants to share their stories, with their written agreement and many have already done so.
How do I donate?
Finally, if you would like to donate, or raise money on our behalf, either email secretary@rescuebenevolent.fund for bank details. Or head to our Donate page. A huge thank you to all who donate, either through single donation or regular standing order. We appreciate every penny. And we couldn’t continue without you, that’s for sure.