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Following a significant earthquake police are a large first responder group involved in victim recovery, civil emergencies and community support. They are also exposed to the everyday work and non-work related disruptions associated with the disaster. Conservation of resources (COR) theory offers a framework for understanding longer-term health outcomes associated with disasters in this group. Using a mixed methods approach we surveyed coping resources and psychological health outcomes in police (sworn and non-sworn) working during the 2010-2011 earthquakes in Christchurch (New Zealand). Free text responses (n = 322) from the quantitative survey were subject to a directed qualitative content analysis. Initial data coding used four categories derived from COR theory then inductively grouped into a typology of losses and gains. Resource losses included on-going issues with insurance providers, damage and threat of loss to home, financial insecurity, and loss of social connectedness, lack of employer recognition and job threat. Resource gains included enhanced self-efficacy, posttraumatic growth and pride in contributing as police during the critical periods. COR theory was conceptually a good fit for the data, and underscored the dominance of disaster-associated day-to-day resource losses. Implications for staff support and wellbeing, and foci of future welfare interventions are considered., In the early hours of September 4th 2010 the first of a series of significant earthquakes struck the Canterbury region of New Zealand (NZ). This first earthquake measured 7.1 on [...]

Purpose: Our objective was to explore the intersection between mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) recovery experiences and injury understandings, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Materials and Methods: The quantitative component was a descriptive case–control study comparing participants (n = 76) who had recovered or not recovered after an MTBI, across demographic and psychological variables. A subset of participants (n = 10) participated in a semi-structured interview to explore experiences of recovery in more detail. We followed threads across the datasets to integrate findings from component methods. Results: The quantitative analyses revealed differences between the two groups in terms of injury recovery understandings and expectations. The qualitative analyses suggested that achieving consistency across information sources was important. By tracing threads back and forth between the component datasets, we identified a super-ordinate meta-theme that captured participants' experiences of wrestling with uncertainty about their recovery and the impacts in terms of heightened anxiety, confusion, and feelings of invalidation. Conclusion: The effectiveness of psychoeducation and reassurance after MTBI may be optimized when content is tailored to the individual. Clinicians are urged to attend both to the subjective interpretations patients make of information gained from formal and informal, internal and external sources, and where information across these sources conflicts and creates uncertainty. Effectiveness of psychoeducation and reassurance after injury may be optimized when content is tailored to the individual rather than being generic. Effectiveness of such interventions may also be optimized by understanding the subjective interpretations individuals make of injury knowledge gleaned from formal and informal, internal and external sources. Conflicting information from such multiple sources may create uncertainty with associated increased distress as an individual negotiates their recovery from injury. Attending to this uncertainty may be a helpful target for treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Qualitative research examining experiences of recovering from mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) is limited. Findings from quantitative studies regarding predictors of persisting symptoms are inconsistent with limited attention directed to capturing broad perspectives and priorities of the wider stakeholders. More flexible research approaches may help advance the field. We used a mixed method design to generate patient perspectives of MTBI recovery, integrating these with quantitative investigation to isolate factors that might contribute to divergent MTBI outcomes. Methods: The qualitative component reported here involved semi-structured interviews with selected participants (n = 10) from the quantitative study cohort, sampling both recovered and non-recovered adult MTBI participants. Interviews focused on participants' general description and understandings of their recovery and perceptions of what helped or hindered this. Data were analyzed using general thematic analysis. Results and conclusion: Participants regardless of recovery status identified the importance of having a coherent understanding of their injury and recovery. Factors facilitating coherence included social support, validation, reassurance, accessing credible evidence-based information and having a pathway to wellness. Findings suggested that coherence could be a helpful umbrella construct worthy of examination in future MTBI research. This construct appears broad and able to cope with the complexity of individual experiences after injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]