St John Ambulance UK
Back to Case studies“Our experience of the services is that in customer service terms Oasis staff have a good approach. Whatever Oasis says they will do, happens.”
Linda Dominguez, Manager First Aid Services
St John Ambulance UK
St John Ambulance teaches people first aid and their volunteers attend thousands of public and community events each year.
Their strategic vision is to build an attractive, vibrant, contemporary and inclusive organisation that grows its membership and cares for its members and facilitates their personal development.
Although St John had established a telephone counselling service to support members who had been involved in critical incidents, after two years it was realised that members and employees needed something different.
A four point plan to support people was established – internal debriefing and defusing in critical incidents – and an external counselling service was needed to be the “fourth point”.
Belief in our services, enthusiasm and genuine interest
When St John first met Oasis they were impressed that we had some understanding of the problems facing them.
They also said they liked our belief in our services, enthusiasm and genuine interest in their work.
St John realised that there would be benefits in extending the counselling service so that people could use it for a wide range of issues – not just critical incidents.
Launching the service
A confidential counselling service for members and staff of St John was launched in July 2002.
One of the challenges was to ensure as many of St John’s 35,000 members as possible knew about the service.
Oasis publicised the service with presentations to staff and were present at conferences and workshops.
Linda Dominguez, Manager First Aid Services, said: “Our experience of the services is that in customer service terms Oasis staff have a good approach. Whatever Oasis says they will do, happens.”
A well-used, well-regarded service
The service has been well used from the start.
St John’s initial view that people would benefit from being able to access counselling for a range of issues – not just following critical incidents – has been borne out.
“We have been very grateful the service has been there and the counsellors went out of their way to be very helpful to the clients,” said Linda.
Those who have used the service gave feedback including:
“Anyone who sees this counsellor will improve their self-image, thoughts about themselves, their self-esteem and their life in general.”
“The sessions helped me to take control of myself and gain a clearer understanding of the situation.”
“It has been a tremendous aid.”
Linda added: “The reports provided have been fantastic – giving us all the detail we wanted, but never breaching confidentiality. We have recommended the service to other organisations that face the same kinds of issues as we do.”