Summary
Objective: Emergency service personnel run an increased risk of suffering from job
related traumatization. Though still missing the proof of effectiveness, early intervention
support, mostly based on the Mitchell debriefing model (CISD), is provided by various
professionals (physicians, psychologists, chaplains) and semi professionals, so called
peers, within the emergency service organizations. While multiple studies critically
discuss the effects of CISD and other interventions, little is known about the attitude
of emergency service personnel towards these techniques. Aim of this study was therefor
to find out which factors have an effect on the attitude towards early mental health
service. Material and methods: 90 active duty emergency service personnel answered
a self constructed questionnaire about their preference concerning the professionalism
of the intervention providers and the setting (group versus individual counseling).
Results: In our study we could show, that depending on age, gender and pre-experience
preferences concerning early intervention differs. While male emergency service personnel
preferred chaplains and group session settings, female personnel prefer individual
counseling by psychologists. Irrespective of age and gender, physicians are refused
as early psychological help providers. Conclusions: The implicit assumption of an
overall preference for group sessions and peer support as it is being provided today
by the critical incident stress management system was not supported by our research.
The observed gender and age differences in preferred intervention methods underline
the necessity of individualized prevention programs instead of the wide spread “all
fits one approach”.
Keywords
Psychotrauma - post crisis intervention - debriefing - mental health service utilization
