“The Burn-Out Fire Brigade: A Fun Initiative to Tackle Burnout in Society”

2023-05-16 14:42:09

The Burn-Out Fire Brigade is a fun, accessible and relaxed initiative to make people more aware of this disease. The specially purchased historic fire engine will start this spring with an information tour along schools, fairs, festivals and at (business) sites. The main aim is to make people think about their own lifestyle/balance and forms of relaxation. The car is therefore amply equipped with sports and game attributes, recliners, chair massage, painting attributes, music for relaxation and books. Also present are information materials that will be distributed and explained by the crew, consisting of professional burnout coaches.

Activities

There are workshops stress prevention & coaching leadership especially for companies & organizations and a low-threshold team building has been devised where employees in a playful and creative way, through a talent game, start thinking more consciously about allocating time, setting the right goals, balance seeking and communicating across boundaries and experiencing stress. The emphasis is on the positive. The useful is interspersed with the pleasant. There are try-out workshops, meditation, yoga, thai chi or wild picking so that participants can taste ways to escape the crowds themselves. Managers are taught to identify, to put things into perspective and to coach them.

For (secondary) schools & educational institutions, an information program is available through sports & games to provide insight into why being offline and finding balance at a younger age is already important.

For people who are extinguished, the burn-out fire brigade provides 1:1 coaching conversations online or in the fire truck on location, for example in the forest. This involves looking at the mental, emotional and physical health of the person, with the aim of quickly bringing them back to themselves in a healthier way.

Helping people

The Burn-Out Fire Department is an initiative of ‘fire chief’ Robbert Minderhoud, who is a professional coach in daily life. His goal is to give people more insight into their own behavioral patterns and possibly help them through insightful conversations and events.

“No matter how fun, the initiative is deadly serious. I have long been concerned about the heavy workload, always-on and ever-advancing technology in our lives. Normal human contact is in danger of disappearing; we are ruled by algorithms resulting in loneliness and fears. My goal is to let people light their own fire again so that they can stand in their own light. We prefer to do this by extinguishing as little as possible.”

It is clear that this is a burning issue. More than 1.3 million people in the Netherlands show burnout complaints. This makes it the number 1 occupational disease among mental illnesses. Yet little attention seems to be paid to this major problem for politicians and society. We do read about it in the media, the topic is hot, but the solutions are lukewarm.

By: National Care Guide