Understanding and Addressing Occupational Stressors in Internet-Delivered Therapy for Public Safety Personnel: A Qualitative Analysis

Date
2022-04-14
Authors
Beahm, Janine, D.
Landry, Caeleigh, A.
McCall, Hugh, C.
Carleton, R. Nicholas
Hadjistavropoulos, Heather, D.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Abstract

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).

Description
© 2022 by the authors. 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/).
Keywords
public safety personnel, first responder, internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy, digital mental health, occupational stress
Citation
Beahm, J. D., Landry, C. A., McCall, H. C., Carleton, R. N., Hadjistavropoulos, H. (2022). Understanding and Addressing Occupational Stressors in Internet-Delivered Therapy for Public Safety Personnel: A Qualitative Analysis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(8), 4744. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19084744