{"id":370,"date":"2018-05-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-22T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/profile-felix-fund-eod-and-search-community\/370\/"},"modified":"2020-01-10T10:27:02","modified_gmt":"2020-01-10T10:27:02","slug":"profile-felix-fund-eod-and-search-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/profile-felix-fund-eod-and-search-community\/370\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping Felix \u2013 support for the entire EOD and Search community"},"content":{"rendered":"

Felix Fund \u2013 The Bomb Disposal Charity promotes the wellbeing of individuals within the EOD and Search community through hardship grants and therapeutic breaks. CEO Melanie Moughton explains more.<\/h2>\n

The Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) and Search community across the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, as well as SO15 (the Metropolitan Police Counter Terror Unit), attends over 2,500 suspect devices, WWII bombs, and terrorist situations in the United Kingdom each year \u2013 a fact little known by the general public.<\/p>\n

With the UK having in the last year been on the receiving end of increased terrorist activity, such as the Manchester bombing and attacks in London, the personnel from the EOD community are called on even more. These events have had a national impact, and our thoughts are with all of those who have been affected.<\/p>\n

The men and women of the EOD community are on call 24\/7 to assist the emergency services with such events and are continually on the front line protecting the country. You rarely see or hear of their contribution, but members of specialist military EOD units and SO15 play a pivotal role in exploiting and, where possible, preventing terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n

Who are Felix Fund?<\/h3>\n

This continued exposure to highly stressful situations can have a lasting effect both physically and mentally on individuals in the EOD and Search community. Felix Fund \u2013 The Bomb Disposal Charity supports these brave professionals by providing much-needed welfare support and financial assistance.<\/p>\n

In the first years of its existence Felix Fund provided normalisation breaks for over 100 EOD and Search community teams on their return from Afghanistan and Northern Ireland. These breaks were designed to identify or reduce the impact of mental stress that a high-pressure tour can bring about and consisted of a week\u2019s therapeutic team-building activities and discussion groups designed to draw out and share operational experiences. More importantly, the breaks provided the opportunity to regroup and reinforce peer bonds with colleagues who had travelled the same operational journey. The breaks proved vital in identifying and ultimately reducing the risk of poor mental health among individuals.<\/p>\n

Introducing the Dashboard Courses<\/h3>\n

Today Felix Fund continues to focus on the important issue of mental health amongst serving military, and in late 2015 we launched a programme providing preventative stress training based on mindfulness. Known as the Dashboard Courses, its aim is to provide individuals with tools and techniques which will enable them to recognise warning signs of stress and other mental health illnesses and to allow them to develop their ability to relax, clear their minds, and focus on positive aspects of their life. This will then feed back into a more productive and stress-reduced work and home environment.<\/p>\n

The Dashboard Courses have proved very effective. How many training programmes will get a group of serving military doing yoga, performing breathing exercises, and running around a room playing catch with a fluffy toy? The key to the programme is a totally relaxed environment away from work and home stresses, where individuals can focus on themselves.<\/p>\n

To date Felix Fund has had nearly 200 EOD and Search community personnel go through these courses, with fantastic results:<\/p>\n