Browsing by Author "McCall, Hugh, C."

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Open Access
Initial Outcomes of Transdiagnostic Internet-Delivered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Tailored to Public Safety Personnel: Longitudinal Observational Study
(JMIR Publications, 2021-05) Hadjistavropoulos, Heather, D.; McCall, Hugh, C.; Thiessen, David, L.; Huang, Ziyin; Carleton, R. Nicholas; Dear, Blake, F.; Titov, Nickolai
Background: Canadian public safety personnel (PSP) experience high rates of mental health disorders and face many barriers to treatment. Internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (ICBT) overcomes many such barriers, and is effective for treating depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.
Open Access
Insights into internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy for public safety personnel: Exploration of client experiences during and after treatment
(Elsevier, 2021-11-09) Beahm, Janine, D.; McCall, Hugh, C.; Carleton, R. Nicholas; Titov, Nick; Dear, Blake; Hadjistavropoulos, Heather
Canadian public safety personnel (PSP) experience high rates of mental health problems and barriers to receiving care. Internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (ICBT) may help reduce barriers to care; however, there is no literature involving qualitative analyses of client feedback to describe PSP experiences with ICBT. Identifying these experiences is important because it can inform future use of ICBT with this group that has unique needs. The current study was designed to explore how clients (N = 82) experienced ICBT that had been tailored to meet their needs; specifically, the study assessed their perceptions of program impacts, what clients found helpful, and client suggestions for improvements. The ICBT course included five core lessons, client stories, and nine initial additional resources, as well as flexible frequencies (optional, once weekly, or twice weekly) and durations (8 to 16 weeks) of therapist support. A qualitative reliability thematic analysis was used to analyze client communications and feedback. Responses to a Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire administered at eight weeks post-enrollment were available for 57 clients. Client emails with therapists were also examined among all clients, including an additional 25 clients who did not complete the Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire. Themes identified in the qualitative analyses were related to: reported impacts and hindering events, helpful and challenging course skills and content, helpful aspects of the course, and areas for improvement. Clients who completed the Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire and those who did not reported beneficial impacts from the program, with the most commonly endorsed themes being skill development and normalizing mental health issues. Hindering events were experienced by both groups and included timeline challenges, technology challenges, and negative effects. Comments from both groups suggested that clients had more success than challenges when practicing the skills. Thought challenging was the skill most frequently identified as helpful. Clients described many aspects of the program as helpful with the most frequently endorsed themes being the course format and content, the flexible nature of the course, access to additional materials and case stories, and therapist assistance. Clients also provided suggestions for improving the course (e.g., case stories, additional resources, timelines audio and videos). Overall, client communications suggest that ICBT is accepted and perceived as beneficial among PSP. These results informed rapid improvements to the ICBT program tailored for PSP and may inform others seeking to provide digital mental health services to PSP.
Open Access
Understanding and Addressing Occupational Stressors in Internet-Delivered Therapy for Public Safety Personnel: A Qualitative Analysis
(Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 2022-04-14) Beahm, Janine, D.; Landry, Caeleigh, A.; McCall, Hugh, C.; Carleton, R. Nicholas; Hadjistavropoulos, Heather, D.
Internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (ICBT) is effective when tailored to meet the needs of public safety personnel (PSP). Nevertheless, there is limited research on the nature of the occupational stressors faced by PSP who seek ICBT and how PSP use ICBT to address occupational stressors. We provided tailored ICBT to PSP (N = 126; 54% women) and conducted a qualitative content analysis on clinicians’ eligibility screening notes, clients’ emails, and clients’ survey responses to understand the occupational stressors faced by PSP and their use of ICBT to address such stressors. Clients described several occupational stressors, including operational stressors (e.g., potentially psychologically traumatic events and sleep/shiftwork issues) and organizational stressors (e.g., issues with leadership, resources, and workload). More clients shared occupational concerns during the screening process (97%) than during treatment (58%). The most frequently cited occupational stressor was exposure to potentially psychologically traumatic events. Clients reported using course skills (e.g., controlled breathing and graduated exposure) to manage occupational stressors (e.g., responding to calls, workplace conflict, and work–family conflict). Thought challenging was the most frequently reported strategy used to manage occupational stressors. The current results provide insights into the occupational stressors PSP experience and endeavor to manage using ICBT, which can inform further efforts to tailor ICBT for PSP (e.g., adapting course materials and examples to take into account these operational and occupational stressors).
Open Access
Why do public safety personnel seek tailored internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy? An observational study of treatment-seekers
(Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 2021-11-15) McCall, Hugh, C.; Landry, Caeleigh, A.; Ogunade, Adeyemi; Carleton, R. Nicholas; Hadjistavropoulos, Heather, D.
First responders and other public safety personnel (PSP) experience elevated rates of mental disorders and face unique barriers to care. Internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (ICBT) is an effective and accessible treatment that has demonstrated good treatment outcomes when tailored specifically for PSP. However, little is known about how PSP come to seek ICBT. A deeper understanding of why PSP seek ICBT can inform efforts to tailor and disseminate ICBT and other treatments to PSP. The present study was designed to (1) explore the demographic and clinical characteristics, motivations, and past treatments of PSP seeking ICBT, (2) learn how PSP first learned about ICBT, and (3) understand how PSP perceive ICBT. To address these objectives, we examined responses to online screening questionnaires among PSP (N = 259) who signed up for an ICBT program tailored for PSP. The results indicate that most of our sample experienced clinically significant symptoms of multiple mental disorders, had received prior mental disorder diagnoses and treatments, heard about ICBT from a work-related source, reported positive perceptions of ICBT, and sought ICBT to learn skills to manage their own symptoms of mental disorders. The insights gleaned through this study have important implications for ICBT researchers and others involved in the development, delivery, evaluation, and funding of mental healthcare services for PSP.