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Helping Frontline Workers in Texas—A Framework for Resource Development

First responders disproportionately experience occupational stress when compared to the general population, and COVID-19 has exacerbated this stress. The nature of their duties as law enforcement officers, firefighters, and medics exposes them to repeated trauma, increasing their risk of developing...

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Autores principales: Lalani, Karima, O’Neal, Meredith, Joannou, Simone Lee, Gopal, Bhanumathi, Champagne-Langabeer, Tiffany
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10606751/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37887673
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20206935
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author Lalani, Karima
O’Neal, Meredith
Joannou, Simone Lee
Gopal, Bhanumathi
Champagne-Langabeer, Tiffany
author_facet Lalani, Karima
O’Neal, Meredith
Joannou, Simone Lee
Gopal, Bhanumathi
Champagne-Langabeer, Tiffany
author_sort Lalani, Karima
collection PubMed
description First responders disproportionately experience occupational stress when compared to the general population, and COVID-19 has exacerbated this stress. The nature of their duties as law enforcement officers, firefighters, and medics exposes them to repeated trauma, increasing their risk of developing a broad array of mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance use disorder (SUD), and compassion fatigue. This paper describes the need for resources for frontline workers and provides a framework for creating and implementing resources. A team of interdisciplinary subject matter experts developed two major resources. The first resource was a 24/7 helpline to support first responders and healthcare workers experiencing substance use or mental health concerns. The second resource was the First Responders Educational Campaign, which developed and delivered focused training modules on useful topics covering substance use and mental health concerns as they pertain to this workforce. Utilizing core interprofessional principles, content was sourced from multiple disciplines and contrasting perspectives to provide a comprehensive understanding of mental health and substance use issues. The curriculum was designed so that the content was interdisciplinary, interprofessional, and accessible to audiences across disciplines and professions. After engaging more than 1500 individuals, resources developed here have augmented mental health and substance use support resources available to the target population.
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spelling pubmed-106067512023-10-28 Helping Frontline Workers in Texas—A Framework for Resource Development Lalani, Karima O’Neal, Meredith Joannou, Simone Lee Gopal, Bhanumathi Champagne-Langabeer, Tiffany Int J Environ Res Public Health Article First responders disproportionately experience occupational stress when compared to the general population, and COVID-19 has exacerbated this stress. The nature of their duties as law enforcement officers, firefighters, and medics exposes them to repeated trauma, increasing their risk of developing a broad array of mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance use disorder (SUD), and compassion fatigue. This paper describes the need for resources for frontline workers and provides a framework for creating and implementing resources. A team of interdisciplinary subject matter experts developed two major resources. The first resource was a 24/7 helpline to support first responders and healthcare workers experiencing substance use or mental health concerns. The second resource was the First Responders Educational Campaign, which developed and delivered focused training modules on useful topics covering substance use and mental health concerns as they pertain to this workforce. Utilizing core interprofessional principles, content was sourced from multiple disciplines and contrasting perspectives to provide a comprehensive understanding of mental health and substance use issues. The curriculum was designed so that the content was interdisciplinary, interprofessional, and accessible to audiences across disciplines and professions. After engaging more than 1500 individuals, resources developed here have augmented mental health and substance use support resources available to the target population. MDPI 2023-10-17 /pmc/articles/PMC10606751/ /pubmed/37887673 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20206935 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Lalani, Karima
O’Neal, Meredith
Joannou, Simone Lee
Gopal, Bhanumathi
Champagne-Langabeer, Tiffany
Helping Frontline Workers in Texas—A Framework for Resource Development
title Helping Frontline Workers in Texas—A Framework for Resource Development
title_full Helping Frontline Workers in Texas—A Framework for Resource Development
title_fullStr Helping Frontline Workers in Texas—A Framework for Resource Development
title_full_unstemmed Helping Frontline Workers in Texas—A Framework for Resource Development
title_short Helping Frontline Workers in Texas—A Framework for Resource Development
title_sort helping frontline workers in texas—a framework for resource development
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10606751/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37887673
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20206935
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