Public safety personnel, including firefighters and first responders, can be exposed to highly disturbing or threatening events, such as badly injured people, deceased children, and highly distressed individuals. On average, firefighters attend to approximately eight different potentially traumatic events at work annually. Mental health problems, labelled as posttraumatic stress injuries (PTSI), can result from those exposures and may include anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) suggests that within the first month following the traumatic event, we should repeatedly assess the employee exposed to a traumatic event in order to detect early development of symptoms and help manage these difficulties before aggravation. New technologies, such as mobile device applications, may be a useful way to complete repeated assessments in real time. The proposed research is a longitudinal study that intends to apply NICE’s recommendation by monitoring PTSI symptoms in real time (via a mobile application) among trauma-exposed firefighters and to study the trajectory of PTSI and associated factors over three months. Two hundred male firefighters will be recruited throughout all fire stations in Montreal, Canada. Recruited participants will be asked to complete several questionnaires via the mobile application every two weeks over a 3-month period. The proposed study will help to improve clinical interventions addressed to firefighters exposed to traumatic events by identifying the presence of risk factors for PTSI in real time. The use of a mobile application allows for good cost-efficacy in terms of the delivery of interventions.

Chercheur principal

Stéphane Guay (Université de Montréal)

Co-chercheurs

Suzie Bond; Sylvain L'Hostie (Service de sécurité incendie de Montréal) et Noah Reddler (Arche innovation)

Organisme subventionnaire

IRSC (Instituts de recherche en santé du Canada)

Programme

Catalyst Grant: Post-Traumatic Stress Injuries among Public Safety Personnel

Secteur de recherche

Santé et sécurité au travail

Années

2019 - 2020

Montant accordé

149 063,00 $