Cargando…

Canadian Career Firefighters’ Mental Health Impacts and Priorities

Firefighters’ perceptions of mental health can inform management. This qualitative study explored Canadian career firefighters’ experiences, needs, and research priorities with respect to mental health. Thirty-nine career firefighters (33 men, 6 women) of different ranks and geographic locales were...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: MacDermid, Joy C., Lomotan, Margaret, Hu, Mostin A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8656638/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34886394
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182312666
_version_ 1784612327503429632
author MacDermid, Joy C.
Lomotan, Margaret
Hu, Mostin A.
author_facet MacDermid, Joy C.
Lomotan, Margaret
Hu, Mostin A.
author_sort MacDermid, Joy C.
collection PubMed
description Firefighters’ perceptions of mental health can inform management. This qualitative study explored Canadian career firefighters’ experiences, needs, and research priorities with respect to mental health. Thirty-nine career firefighters (33 men, 6 women) of different ranks and geographic locales were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and qualitatively analyzed using thematic analysis within an interpretive description approach. Firefighters reported that critical incidents and chronic job stressors contributed to mental health symptoms that led to burnout, compassion fatigue, and mental and physical injury. They were concerned with family impacts, like lack of full openness, reduced financial stability, and risk of divorce; and work impacts, like interpersonal conflict, lack of support to fellow firefighters, task avoidance, and absenteeism. A broad array of barriers and facilitators were found in firefighter work, culture, programs, social supports, health care, and societal factors. Variability in access to help, the changing fire service, and the complexity of knowing what to do to achieve mental health were evident across themes. Firefighters identified the need for research in four areas: awareness and monitoring, understanding etiology of mental health, better prevention and treatment, and access to care. Across domains of inquiry, context, “two sides to the coin”, and uncertainty were overarching themes.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8656638
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-86566382021-12-10 Canadian Career Firefighters’ Mental Health Impacts and Priorities MacDermid, Joy C. Lomotan, Margaret Hu, Mostin A. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Firefighters’ perceptions of mental health can inform management. This qualitative study explored Canadian career firefighters’ experiences, needs, and research priorities with respect to mental health. Thirty-nine career firefighters (33 men, 6 women) of different ranks and geographic locales were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and qualitatively analyzed using thematic analysis within an interpretive description approach. Firefighters reported that critical incidents and chronic job stressors contributed to mental health symptoms that led to burnout, compassion fatigue, and mental and physical injury. They were concerned with family impacts, like lack of full openness, reduced financial stability, and risk of divorce; and work impacts, like interpersonal conflict, lack of support to fellow firefighters, task avoidance, and absenteeism. A broad array of barriers and facilitators were found in firefighter work, culture, programs, social supports, health care, and societal factors. Variability in access to help, the changing fire service, and the complexity of knowing what to do to achieve mental health were evident across themes. Firefighters identified the need for research in four areas: awareness and monitoring, understanding etiology of mental health, better prevention and treatment, and access to care. Across domains of inquiry, context, “two sides to the coin”, and uncertainty were overarching themes. MDPI 2021-12-01 /pmc/articles/PMC8656638/ /pubmed/34886394 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182312666 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
MacDermid, Joy C.
Lomotan, Margaret
Hu, Mostin A.
Canadian Career Firefighters’ Mental Health Impacts and Priorities
title Canadian Career Firefighters’ Mental Health Impacts and Priorities
title_full Canadian Career Firefighters’ Mental Health Impacts and Priorities
title_fullStr Canadian Career Firefighters’ Mental Health Impacts and Priorities
title_full_unstemmed Canadian Career Firefighters’ Mental Health Impacts and Priorities
title_short Canadian Career Firefighters’ Mental Health Impacts and Priorities
title_sort canadian career firefighters’ mental health impacts and priorities
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8656638/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34886394
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182312666
work_keys_str_mv AT macdermidjoyc canadiancareerfirefightersmentalhealthimpactsandpriorities
AT lomotanmargaret canadiancareerfirefightersmentalhealthimpactsandpriorities
AT humostina canadiancareerfirefightersmentalhealthimpactsandpriorities