Abstract
BackgroundFirst responders are a high-risk population for occupational stress injuries as they often encounter prolonged stress within their line of work. The aim of this rapid overview of reviews is to summarize existing evidence on interventions for the prevention and management of occupational stress injury (OSI) in first responders.MethodsMEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library were searched for systematic reviews examining the impact of prevention, rehabilitation, and resilience-building strategies targeting frontline community safety personnel in February 2019. Pairs of reviewers screened titles and abstracts followed by full-text articles and conducted data abstraction and quality appraisal using the AMSTAR II tool. To ensure a rapid overview process, the search strategy was limited to the last 10 years, quality appraisal of reviews and abstraction of study-level data was completed by one person and verified by another, and the quality of the individual primary studies was not appraised. The findings were summarized descriptively.ResultsA total of 14 reviews with 47 unique primary studies were found after screening 1393 records. A majority of studies targeted OSI in police officers (78.7%), followed by firefighters (17%) and correctional officers (4.3%). Of the 47 included primary studies, 24 targeted prevention of OSI (i.e., resilience training, stress management, suicide prevention, and other health promotions) and 23 targeted rehabilitation (i.e., drug therapy, psychotherapy, and other therapies). Prevention strategies including resilience training programs had positive outcomes, while suicide prevention and psychotherapy interventions reported mixed results.ConclusionsSome promising interventions targeting the prevention and rehabilitation of OSI among police officers, firefighters, and correctional officers were identified in the included studies, and these results will serve as a basis for the development of evidence-based strategies to mitigate future risks in this population. However, several gaps were also identified in this area that will require further investigation prior to widespread implementation of effective interventions.Systematic review registrationPROSPERO CRD42019125945
Highlights
First responders are a high-risk population for occupational stress injuries as they often encounter prolonged stress within their line of work
Some promising interventions targeting the prevention and rehabilitation of occupational stress injury (OSI) among police officers, firefighters, and correctional officers were identified in the included studies, and these results will serve as a basis for the development of evidence-based strategies to mitigate future risks in this population
Several gaps were identified in this area that will require further investigation prior to widespread implementation of effective interventions
Summary
First responders are a high-risk population for occupational stress injuries as they often encounter prolonged stress within their line of work. There are substantial direct and systemic costs, such as cost to individuals affected and their primary caregivers, cost of healthcare providers for treatment of OSI-related ailments, and the cost of lost labor and productivity of officers taking medical or stress leave [3]. This project was commissioned by the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services (MCSCS), to assess the utility of interventions currently implemented at the workplace targeting OSI as a first step to the development of evidence-based action plans to mitigate future risks in this population
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