Looking after the rescuers

Land Search and Rescue volunteers face what most of us never will. A HealthCarePlus grant is helping build the peer support networks that have their backs.

Every year thousands of Land Search and Rescue volunteers head into New Zealand’s bush, mountains, caves and coastline, as well as towns and cities, to find people who are lost, missing or injured. The 3,000-strong volunteers, organised across 68 local groups and supported by specialist teams, work tirelessly to rescue people in this confronting work. Land Search and Rescue are New Zealand’s specialist search and rescue organisation working alongside New Zealand Police.

Over the 2024-25 year alone, Land Search and Rescue volunteers responded to 598 people in need. Forty lives were saved, 159 people were rescued and 219 were assisted. Forty-nine were recovered deceased and returned to their whānau. A further 131 cases remain under ongoing enquiry.

These numbers don’t show the emotional toll that Land Search and Rescue volunteers may go through when exposed to traumatic injury and death over the course of their volunteering. Unlike paid emergency personnel, volunteers are not covered by ACC should they sustain a mental injury through doing this work.

So in 2023, Land Search and Rescue established a Peer Support Network to address exactly that gap. Peer supporters are trained in Mental Health First Aid Response, and crucially, they are volunteers themselves, so they understand what their colleagues may see, hear and carry home with them after a search.

“They are the ‘buddy’ who knows what the volunteer is going through,” says Nicky Hansen, Land Search and Rescue’s National Health, Safety and Wellbeing Advisor. Through this peer support system, Nicky explains, peer supporters can help volunteers understand their own feelings, notice how those feelings are affecting their lives, and help them make empowered choices about their wellbeing. Peer supporters are also trained to check for risk of harm and to keep people safe from suicide.

A grant from HealthCarePlus funded the training of 12 additional volunteers nationwide in Mental Health First Aid. These training sessions took place in Wellington on Saturdays to accommodate people’s weekly work schedules and to allow people from all over the country to travel there efficiently. 

“This grant has empowered more volunteers to step up into a vital role – something that would have taken longer to achieve if not for the grant,” says Nicky. “The stigma of ‘she’ll be right, mate’ and bottling things up are slowly being eroded. Peer support is now more proactively sought, both before and during events, not just after.”

Says one recipient of peer support: “It made a real difference to me. The prompt response made me feel very cared for. I feel a huge weight has come off. I was about to start slinking out of my group but I won’t be anymore, thanks to this service.”

The work of the Peer Support Network has also recently been recognised with a Judges’ Commendation at the 2025 New Zealand Workplace Health and Safety Awards. 

For an organisation built entirely on people showing up for others, Land Search and Rescue is proving that looking after the rescuers is just as vital as the search itself.

Feedback from our Grant Committee members

If you are interested and want to know more this year's Grants for Good and how to apply for one, then click below to find out more.

Apply for

Grants for Good