STUDY OF ACTUAL SITUATIONS AND MANAGEMENT OF CRITICAL INCIDENT STRESS FOR EMERGENCY CREWS
― FOCUSING ON RELATIONSHIP WITH FAMILY MEMBERS ―
2020 Volume 27 Issue 1 Pages 11-25
Details
2020 Volume 27 Issue 1 Pages 11-25
Purpose: Firefighters often encounter devastating and horrific scenes at disaster sites in their emergency services including firefighting, rescuing and first-aids on a daily basis; hence, substantial attention has been paid to coping strategies for critical incident stress. The purpose of this study was, focusing on the relationship with family, to recognize the actual situations and coping behaviors for critical incident stress as well as social support, and to clarify the challenges and reactions in those management strategies.
Methods: Among the emergency callouts at A Firefighting Department in 2015, cases of deaths and serious injuries that included multiple “important stressors for emergency crews” were extracted: And 38 emergency crews who engaged in those cases were included in this study. A psychological impact survey, coping survey and semi-structured interviews were conducted, and the necessary data were collected.
Results: A certain level of acute stress reaction was observed in 24 participants, 63.2% of the emergency crews involved in this analysis. As a coping behavior, 12 participants (31.6%) chose “conversation with their family members”, and 34 participants (89.5%) chose “conversation with colleagues”. In regards to social support, 37 participants (97.4%) perceived support and positively rated each support. The survey revealed that there were restraining factors such as confidentiality and psychological considerations in family conversations.
Conclusion: This study clarified the actual situation of critical incident stress in daily emergency activities, tendencies and challenges in coping behaviors focusing on the relationship with family members, the importance of social support, etc. In particular, addressing for restraining factors in family conversations and the use of social support is important in promoting critical incident stress management.
