Firefighter preferences regarding post-incident intervention

Abstract

The effectiveness of Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) as a tool remains, at best, inconclusive. Yet in many locales CISD is mandatory for emergency services workers, including firefighters. To our knowledge, to date no study has investigated firefighters’ preferences for psychological intervention following traumatic events. To examine this, a survey was conducted with 142 members (54%) of an urban fire and rescue service in south-western Ontario, Canada. Firefighters were provided with five scenarios of varying traumatic intensity, for which they rated desirability of four voluntary post-incident interventions: CISD, individual debriefing, informal discussion, and no intervention. Firefighters expressed interest in working with post-event reactions within their peer group for all events, and an increasing interest in formal intervention as event severity increased. Individual debriefing was preferred to CISD in scenarios of low to moderate intensity. For scenarios of high intensity, ratings for all interventions were high. Expected relationships with prior CISD experience and years of service were not upheld. The essential role of informal peer-support, and the desire for meaningful intervention in severe situations, are discussed.