Protecting the mental health of UK paramedics

It is estimated that the average member of the public within the UK will experience one or maybe two traumatic situations in a lifetime—whether that be through witnessing or being involved in an accident, natural disaster, collision, medical episode or traumatic event. Those working in frontline emergency ambulance services however are exposed to distressing and traumatic events on a much more frequent basis (Halpern et al, 2012).

Given the nature of our work, the paucity of evidence in exploring occupational traumatic distress is perhaps surprisingly limited, with the majority of research studies drawing upon quantitative methods to determine pathological impact. Of course, this work is important, and research has informed us that experiencing psychological distress is not just associated with the more significant incidents such as a transport collision or a multi-casualty scene.

Rather, we now know that it's not so much the type of incident which may result in traumatic distress, but rather our perception and interpretation of an event, and what the incident meant for us personally, both emotionally and psychologically. Thus, any aspect of our work can resonate with us, whether from the fear of, or actually, being assaulted; from witnessing a loss of life; the difficulty of wanting to do more for a patient but not having access to the right resources or time; or even from witnessing social situations such as neglect, poor care and loneliness (Regehr et al, 2002).