CHERYL REGEHR and TED BOBER
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195165029
- eISBN:
- 9780199864089
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195165029.003.0002
- Subject:
- Social Work, Health and Mental Health
This chapter describes the multiple traumatic events encountered by emergency responders, drawing directly on interviews with emergency responders. While most discussed horrific events which ...
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This chapter describes the multiple traumatic events encountered by emergency responders, drawing directly on interviews with emergency responders. While most discussed horrific events which contained much blood and gore, they were quick to add that these were not the events that “have left me sleepless.” The events that were most troubling for paramedics, firefighters, and police officers did not involve multiple deaths in a dramatic incident, but rather involved the death or injury of someone that the worker contextualized in relationship to others. These events connected personally with the emergency responder and often caused them to re-evaluate their own relationships, priorities, and achievements. These findings require a rethink of intervention models that focus on high profile, dramatic incidents and ensure that services are available to allow workers to discuss personal reflections of tragic, yet unsung events.Less
This chapter describes the multiple traumatic events encountered by emergency responders, drawing directly on interviews with emergency responders. While most discussed horrific events which contained much blood and gore, they were quick to add that these were not the events that “have left me sleepless.” The events that were most troubling for paramedics, firefighters, and police officers did not involve multiple deaths in a dramatic incident, but rather involved the death or injury of someone that the worker contextualized in relationship to others. These events connected personally with the emergency responder and often caused them to re-evaluate their own relationships, priorities, and achievements. These findings require a rethink of intervention models that focus on high profile, dramatic incidents and ensure that services are available to allow workers to discuss personal reflections of tragic, yet unsung events.
