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Background: Firefighters endure large occupational burdens and generally operate under conditions of chronic sleep deficiency and circadian disruption due to long shifts, plus interrupted sleep due to emergency calls during the night. A typical shift for firefighters is 24‐h on/48‐h off, and firefighters are expected to use time‐off to recover from any sleep debt, while balancing social, family, and home responsibilities. This qualitative study sets out to assess family dynamics and how firefighters prioritize sleep and recovery at home based on relationship or family status, as well as a fire department's current shift schedule. Methods: Focus groups were conducted via convenience sampling in Portland, OR, with full‐time firefighters, battalion chiefs, and their spouses. Grounded theory, using NVivo 12 Plus, was used to code transcripts to reveal reoccurring concepts and themes. Results: Major themes centered around the increase of nonemergent calls contributing to compassion fatigue. Spouses can help improve the sleep of firefighters by creating opportunities for recuperative sleep at home. However, spouses also conveyed underlying tones of "resentment" relating to their firefighter being unavailable for emotional and instrumental support. While married firefighters discussed choosing family and home obligations over reducing sleep debt to maintain relationships, single and divorced firefighters spoke of fewer conflicts impeding their ability to prioritize sleep at home. Conclusions: These results improve our understanding of how firefighters prioritize sleep at home based on family dynamics and can inform future decision‐making for fire departments in addressing concerns related to work–family conflict, sleep loss, and compassion fatigue among their members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzed the differences between firefighters and other working categories (urban policemen, employees in the service industry) in psychological wellbeing, anxiety, depression, personality and stress. Much research has evidenced that people who have to deal with emergencies are more subjected to psychological diseases. Our results showed that firefighters have lower levels of anxiety, depression, emotional instability and negative emotions in relation to urban policemen and employees. In addition, there are no significant differences in psychological wellbeing. Further research is necessary to define the specific psychological attitudes or traits which allow firefighters to deal with psychological disease and stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Emergency service workers are often exposed to trauma and have increased risk of a range of mental health (MH) conditions. Smartphone applications have the potential to provide this group with effective psychological interventions; however, little is known about the acceptability and preferences regarding such initiatives. Aims To describe the preferences and opinions of emergency service workers regarding the use of smartphone MH applications and to examine the impact of age on these preferences. Methods Participants were recruited from four metropolitan Fire and Rescue NSW stations and responded to questionnaire items covering three key domains: current smartphone use, potential future use and preferences for design and content as well as therapeutic techniques. Results Overall, approximately half the sample (n = 106) claimed they would be interested in trying a tailored emergency-worker MH smartphone application. There were few differences between age groups on preferences. The majority of respondents claimed they would use an app for mental well-being daily and preferred terms such as 'well-being' and 'mental fitness' for referring to MH. Confidentiality, along with a focus on stress, sleep, exercise and resiliency were all considered key features. Behavioural therapeutic techniques were regarded most favourably, compared with other therapies. Conclusions Emergency workers were interested in utilizing smartphone applications focused on MH, but expressed clear preferences regarding language used in promotion, features required and therapeutic techniques preferred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Emergency workers, such as fire-fighters, are routinely exposed to potentially traumatic events. While a number of studies have examined the occurrence of post-traumatic stress disorder, the role of multiple traumas on other mental health sequelae, such as depression and alcohol misuse, among emergency workers remains unclear. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and alcohol misuse in a sample of current and retired fire-fighters and examine their relationship with cumulative trauma exposure. Method: A cross-sectional survey was completed by current (n = 488) and retired (n = 265) fire-fighters from Fire and Rescue New South Wales, Australia. Demographic and occupational information was collected, including the number of fatal incidents fire-fighters reported attending across years of service. Validated, self-report measures were used to determine probable caseness for post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and heavy drinking. Results: Among current fire-fighters, rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression were 8% and 5%, respectively, while 4% reported consumption of more than 42 alcoholic drinks per week. Retired fire-fighters reported significantly greater levels of symptomatology, with the prevalence estimates of post-traumatic stress disorder at 18% (p = 0.001), depression at 18% (p < 0.001) and heavy drinking at 7%. There was a significant positive linear relationship between the number of fatal incidents attended and rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and heavy drinking. Conclusion: Fire-fighters suffer from high rates of mental disorders, with rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and heavy drinking continuing to rise in a linear manner with each additional trauma exposure. The level of psychiatric morbidity among retired fire-fighters appears to be particularly high. Our findings have important implications for the ongoing debates surrounding the detection of mental disorders in high-risk occupations and for policy considerations around the welfare of current and retired emergency workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although firefighting is known to engender a high rate of injury, few studies have examined the contribution of physical exercise, burnout and coping strategies to firefighting-related injuries. Data were collected from a population-based sample of 220 male firefighters. In a descriptive study, the nature and site of the injuries and the relationships among firefighter injuries, physical exercise, burnout and coping strategies were examined. Sprains were the most prevalent type of injury (98%), followed by tendinitis (40%) and muscle tears (30%). More than two thirds of these injuries were located at the ankle. Weekly hours of physical exercise, cognitive weariness at work, social support seeking, problem-focused coping and emotional exhaustion were significantly related to these injuries. The findings suggest that physical exercise and cognitive weariness can be considered as risk factors for French firefighter injuries, whereas problem-focused coping can be seen as a protective factor. More research is needed to explain the relationship between social support seeking and injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, several clinicians have advocated for the use of single session crisis debriefing (CD) groups for relieving the distress of emergency service workers encountering traumatic events in the line of duty. Researchers have subsequently questioned the efficacy of this approach. This study addresses the efficacy of CD groups for 164 Australian firefighters following a critical incident. Findings indicated that the majority of firefighters attending crisis debriefing groups perceived that the intervention was beneficial in reducing their level of stress. However, there was no significant association between attending CD groups and scores on the Beck Depression Inventory. Attending a CD group was associated with higher scores on intrusion subscale of the Impact of Events Scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emergency workers, including urban fire fighters and paramedics, must cope with a variety of duty-related stressors including traumatic incident exposures. Little is known about coping responses of emergency workers or whether their coping responses predict future mental health outcomes. The previously formulated Coping Responses of Rescue Workers Inventory (CRRWI) underwent a principal components analysis employing a sample (N = 220) of urban fire fighters and paramedics. Six empirically and theoretically distinct CRRWl components were identified which were relatively stable over a 6-month period. Scores on one of the CRRWI scales, but neither years of service nor their past half year's traumatic incident exposures, predicted future changes in self-reports of posttraumatic stress symptomatology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about the variables that might be associated with posttraumatic stress symptomatology in high-risk occupational groups such as professional firefighters and paramedics. A sample of 173 urban professional firefighter/EMT's and firefighter/paramedics rated and ranked the stressfulness of 33 actual and/or potential duty-related incident stressors. They also reported whether they had experienced each of these incident stressors within the past 6 months and, if they had, to recall on how many occasions within the past 6 months. A principal components analysis of their rescaled incident stressor ratings yielded five components: Catastrophic Injury to Self or Co-worker, Gruesome Victim Incidents, Render Aid to Seriously Injured, Vulnerable Victims, Minor Injury to Self and Death & Dying Exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]