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Trauma and Mental Health Awareness in Emergency Service Workers: A Qualitative Evaluation of the Behind the Seen Education Workshops

Emergency service workers (ESWs) are at high risk of experiencing poor mental health, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Programs led by ex-service organizations may play an unrecognized but critical role in mental health prevention and promotion. Behind the Seen (BTS) is an Australian...

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Autores principales: Fogarty, Andrea, Steel, Zachary, Ward, Philip B., Boydell, Katherine M., McKeon, Grace, Rosenbaum, Simon
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8122678/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33919279
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094418
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author Fogarty, Andrea
Steel, Zachary
Ward, Philip B.
Boydell, Katherine M.
McKeon, Grace
Rosenbaum, Simon
author_facet Fogarty, Andrea
Steel, Zachary
Ward, Philip B.
Boydell, Katherine M.
McKeon, Grace
Rosenbaum, Simon
author_sort Fogarty, Andrea
collection PubMed
description Emergency service workers (ESWs) are at high risk of experiencing poor mental health, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Programs led by ex-service organizations may play an unrecognized but critical role in mental health prevention and promotion. Behind the Seen (BTS) is an Australian ex-service organization that runs workshops to raise awareness and facilitate conversations around the mental health of ESWs. The purpose of the study is to conduct a qualitative evaluation of workshop participants’ experiences, to understand the acceptability and perceived usefulness over the immediate- (within 1 month), intermediate- (6 months) and longer-terms (12 months). Participants (n = 59 ESWs) were recruited using purposive sampling across five fire and rescue services in metropolitan, regional, and rural locations. Focus groups methodology was used for data collection and data were analyzed using iterative categorization techniques. Participants reported (i) a high perceived need for education about PTSD, (ii) highly salient aspects of the presentation that made for a positive learning experience, including the importance of the lived experiences of the facilitators in the learning process, (iii) key features of changes to intentions, attitudes, and behavior, and (iv) major aspects of the organizational context that affected the understanding and uptake of the program’s key messages. BTS was perceived as an acceptable means of delivering mental health, PTSD, and help-seeking information to ESWs. The program is a promising candidate for scaling-up and further translation.
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spelling pubmed-81226782021-05-16 Trauma and Mental Health Awareness in Emergency Service Workers: A Qualitative Evaluation of the Behind the Seen Education Workshops Fogarty, Andrea Steel, Zachary Ward, Philip B. Boydell, Katherine M. McKeon, Grace Rosenbaum, Simon Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Emergency service workers (ESWs) are at high risk of experiencing poor mental health, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Programs led by ex-service organizations may play an unrecognized but critical role in mental health prevention and promotion. Behind the Seen (BTS) is an Australian ex-service organization that runs workshops to raise awareness and facilitate conversations around the mental health of ESWs. The purpose of the study is to conduct a qualitative evaluation of workshop participants’ experiences, to understand the acceptability and perceived usefulness over the immediate- (within 1 month), intermediate- (6 months) and longer-terms (12 months). Participants (n = 59 ESWs) were recruited using purposive sampling across five fire and rescue services in metropolitan, regional, and rural locations. Focus groups methodology was used for data collection and data were analyzed using iterative categorization techniques. Participants reported (i) a high perceived need for education about PTSD, (ii) highly salient aspects of the presentation that made for a positive learning experience, including the importance of the lived experiences of the facilitators in the learning process, (iii) key features of changes to intentions, attitudes, and behavior, and (iv) major aspects of the organizational context that affected the understanding and uptake of the program’s key messages. BTS was perceived as an acceptable means of delivering mental health, PTSD, and help-seeking information to ESWs. The program is a promising candidate for scaling-up and further translation. MDPI 2021-04-21 /pmc/articles/PMC8122678/ /pubmed/33919279 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094418 Text en © 2021 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
Fogarty, Andrea
Steel, Zachary
Ward, Philip B.
Boydell, Katherine M.
McKeon, Grace
Rosenbaum, Simon
Trauma and Mental Health Awareness in Emergency Service Workers: A Qualitative Evaluation of the Behind the Seen Education Workshops
title Trauma and Mental Health Awareness in Emergency Service Workers: A Qualitative Evaluation of the Behind the Seen Education Workshops
title_full Trauma and Mental Health Awareness in Emergency Service Workers: A Qualitative Evaluation of the Behind the Seen Education Workshops
title_fullStr Trauma and Mental Health Awareness in Emergency Service Workers: A Qualitative Evaluation of the Behind the Seen Education Workshops
title_full_unstemmed Trauma and Mental Health Awareness in Emergency Service Workers: A Qualitative Evaluation of the Behind the Seen Education Workshops
title_short Trauma and Mental Health Awareness in Emergency Service Workers: A Qualitative Evaluation of the Behind the Seen Education Workshops
title_sort trauma and mental health awareness in emergency service workers: a qualitative evaluation of the behind the seen education workshops
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8122678/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33919279
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094418
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