Understanding clinician experiences may provide valuable insights on how to enhance clinical capacities to work with emergency service worker patients and provide treatment that is sensitive to their experiences
Emergency services workers are a unique population with specific values, cultures, and mental health experiences, which can demand specialised background knowledge and treatment approaches for treatments to be effective and acceptable to patients. Assessing the needs of psychologists is an important and necessary step towards providing tailored support and assistance to clinicians working with emergency service worker patients. The current study is part of Responder Assist’s commitment to growth and the continuous improvement of the treatment services provided to emergency services workers.
The findings of the study will provide us with a better understanding of the needs of Victorian mental health clinicians working with emergency service workers, and highlight professional development opportunities, such as the most useful skills training.
It will also assist in identifying which types of external supports are favoured, to support clinicians to work effectively and provide treatment that is sensitive to emergency service worker experiences. The insights gained by talking directly to clinicians who treat emergency services workers will also be used to make improvements to the Responder Assist service.
The study is currently open and recruiting mental health clinicians who have had experience providing treatment to any emergency service worker patient (e.g., police, firefighter, paramedic, SES, emergency call operator). So far our lead researcher has conducted interviews with nine clinicians. Participation in the research involves taking part in a 1-on-1 interview with a mental health researcher who will ask questions about treatment experiences and professional needs when working with emergency service worker patients. Interviews last approximately 60 minutes and can be conducted over the phone or via Zoom at a time convenient for participants.
If you are a clinician who is interested in participating in this research, would like more information, or have any questions, you can contact the lead researcher, Dr Abdullah Arjmand.