Behavioral Health and Firefighters: An Intervention and Interviews with Canadian Firefighters

ABSTRACT

The present study described participatory action research regarding behavioral health of firefighters. At the request of the participant fire department, the Veterans’ Affairs Wellness kit was used to provide wellness information to members. During the intervention, qualitative data from the researcher perspective was collected and subsequently coded to reveal themes about lessons learned during provision of the materials. Following the intervention at the department level, individual interviews were completed with a subsample of members and their spouses. The combined outcomes from these two research phases suggest that wellness interventions for firefighters should be informal, firefighter-specific, focused on programs endorsed by firefighter-related organizations, and supported by management and frontline supervisors. From our data, we suggest that the Veterans’ Affairs Wellness kit should be studied further as a potentially meaningful fire service intervention. Further, we propose that this and other interventions should take into account job aspects identified as important by both members and their spouses.

KEYWORDS:

• Behavioral health
• firefighters
• intervention
• mental health
• qualitative

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anne Sommerfeld

Anne Sommerfeld holds an MSc in Community Health and is a Senior Laboratory Instructor in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Northern British Columbia. Her research interests are in the area of palliative care and end-of-life planning.

Shannon L. Wagner

Shannon L. Wagner is a professor and chair for the School of Health Sciences at the University of Northern British Columbia. Her research interests are in the areas of emergency services, disability management, workplace traumatic stress, and occupational health.

Henry G. Harder

Henry G. Harder is an Indigenous Scholar and is professor and past chair of the School of Health Sciences at the University of Northern British Columbia. He currently holds the Dr. Donald B. Rix BC Leadership Chair in Aboriginal Environmental Health. His research interests are in Aboriginal health, disability issues, workplace mental health, and suicide prevention.

Glen Schmidt

Glen Schmidt is a professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Northern British Columbia. His research interests are in the areas of northern and remote practice and social work supervision.