Abstract
This article seeks to research about the day to day activities and traumatic events in the lives of the first responders, that include firefighters, policemen, and emergency medical teams (EMTs), and their impacts on their psychology. Research shows that the emergency workers are exposed to tragic events and incidents, in the line of duty on a daily basis, and has severe psychological impacts in some cases which last for many years to come. The first responders are exposed to a variety of traumatic events that include multiple casualties and events that involve a smaller number of victims. These events include but are not limited to road accidents, death of children, plane crashes, train wrecks, and terrorist attacks. The possible psychological impacts include but are not limited to nightmares, anxiety, depression, psychological impairment, anger, recurrent dreams, guilt, irritability, alcohol and/or substance abuse and many other symptoms. Generally, the profession of first responders call for exposure to such events.
Introduction
It is a known fact that almost every first responder in emergency response teams has experienced horrible and unforgettable events in the course of his profession. Pain and suffering are matters well known to the emergency workers including but not limited to firefighters, policemen and emergency medical technicians (EMTs). The likes of these events include but are not limited to road accidents, domestic fires, suicide events, and many others. While such events trigger horrific emotions in the life of a normal human being, the ones who are used to such events (i.e. the emergency workers) seem to be unaffected by them. The reality might be pretty much conflicting from common perception. Although it seems like these events have zero to insignificant psychological impact on these workers but, in reality, some of these events might have everlasting impacts. These impacts might include from anything like nightmares, anxiety, depression, psychological impairment, and anger to much extreme symptoms like recurrent dreams, guilt, irritability, alcohol and/or substance abuse and many other symptoms.
Discussion
First responders are exposed to a wide variety of traumatic events that have substantial psychological impacts. While logic may dictate, that massive events might cause an equally massive impact on the personnel present at the scene, it is sometimes the smaller events that induce an unexpectedly catastrophic psychological impact. Recent research has fixated its domain on the impacts of events such as natural disasters, death of children, airplane crashes, train wrecks, terrorist attacks and others on emergency workers (Regehr & Bober, 2005). Regehr and Bober focus on a few events that are suggested by clinical experience and literature to have a drastic impact on the workers. These events include the death of a patient under the responder’s care, the death of a child, mass casualties, violence, life threats, and the death of a coworker in the line of duty. They conducted a research on the occurrence of these events in the lives of the emergency workers and also asked them whether these events had distressful implications for them. They concluded that these events indeed resulted in varying amounts of distress in the lives of these workers depending on the type of event.
The most impactful events with severe psychological impacts on the emergency workers, according to Regehr and Bober, were understandably those that included the death of a child. The horrible events described by the workers include the deaths of children by slitting of the throat of a 10-year-old child by his father, the smothering of a child by the rolling of his parents over him in sleep, the burning of a baby in an oven, the death of a child by boiling water, and other horrific events. The impacts of these events on the different emergency workers included the feelings of helplessness, nightmares, and distress among other psychological impacts. The evident reason behind such severe impacts of the deaths of children seems to be the inability of the subjects to cope with such events and convince themselves that human beings could commit such inhumane atrocities or criminal negligence. Another reason for such disturbing impacts is because of the mere understanding of the grief, that the parents and/or the family of the deceased child, are going through and the feeling of helplessness when they are looking up to them to do something to save their beloved child.
Another example of the traumatic events that the emergency workers go through is that of multiple casualties in car accidents. These types of events are experienced by most of these workers due to the unfortunately high number of the occurrence of such events. The traumatic events with severe psychological impact, explained by Regehr and Bober, involving multiple casualties include the discovery of a dead baby from one of the vehicles, the death of the wife of a severely injured man on the day of his wedding anniversary, and the death of teenagers and young people in front of these workers. The events with multiple casualties are impactful because of the widespread grief among the people who are involved in such events.
The death of a coworker, of the emergency workers, in the line of duty also has a serious impact on their emotional stability. Regehr and Bober provide the instance of a firefighter who remembered the deaths of three firefighters, with whom he was acquainted, in a warehouse fire even after 23 years. Another example was of a police officer whose partner died in a car accident with a drunk driver whose license was suspended. The death of a coworker in the line of duty might sometimes trigger questions in the mind of the workers about their line of work. They might ask themselves if what they are doing is worth it. This type of an event might disturb the emergency workers forcing them to think about their work and their own safety doing the work that they are doing.
The risk of personal injury might, in some cases, also be the cause of unprecedented psychological impacts on the emergency workers. Although, according to Regehr and Bober, the emergency responders do not recollect such events being impactful unless they involve the risk of their lives, but sometimes it is quite the opposite. They explain by providing the example of a paramedic who was feeling fearful and had to carry a flashlight to use as a club during the early days of his career. An instance of a fight between police officers and a patient having diabetic shock is also provided. One of the policemen suffered severe injuries in his back and had to stay off duty for a few days. Another policeman who was shot in an encounter with a gunman who was being held in a building. The policeman was lucky that the bullet did not cross his Kevlar vest but it was enough to get him to think about the risk to his life. These types of incidents are especially impactful because they are directly related to the workers themselves and might induce fear regarding their duties.
Herbert (2015) explains the experiences that a firefighter might have to go through during the course of his career as a firefighter. Firefighters are exposed to an offensive of traumatic events and powerful emotions in the course of their career. These events include “Perilous flames, collapsing buildings, the anguish of burn victims, explosions, automobile accidents, suicide attempts, and even terrorist attacks, dismemberment and death”.
Miller (n.d.) explains how the police officers are exposed to the harshest events in the line of duty and are exposed to severe traumatic events. He explains that police officers are exposed to the most violent people on the face of the earth and they put their lives at risk and meet horrors that the rest of humanity only views it either in newspapers or on the television screens. In addition, policemen are often the target of criticism by the rest of the society. He furthers his analysis to provide other similar events as well.
Minnie, Goodman, and Wallis (2015) explore the experiences that the emergency medical teams have to cope with as part of their daily routines. The range of events vary over a wide domain as EMTs are involved in helping out the victims of almost every type of emergency situations. These events include but are not limited to road traffic accidents, incidents involving children, cot death, burns, suicides and mass casualties.
Conclusion
The discussion makes it evident that first responders are exposed to such horrible events on a daily basis which are not among the experience of a normal person even once throughout his lifetime. These events may have severe psychological impacts on them, however, the extent of the impact varies from person to person. Some events may have greater impacts than others depending on the emotional association of the emergency workers. It may be said that first responders lead a life which is full of events, most of which, are unknown to the normal human being and these events may have their toll on the psychology of the emergency workers.
References
Herbert, W. (2015, April 26). The Psychology of the Firefighter. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wray-herbert/the-psychology-of-the-fir_b_6745506.html
Miller, L. (n.d.). Law Enforcement Traumatic Stress: Clinical Syndromes and Intervention Strategies. American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress. Retrieved from http://www.aaets.org/article87.htm
Minnie, L., Goodman, S., & Wallis, L. (2015). Exposure to daily trauma: The experiences and coping mechanism of Emergency Medical Personnel. A cross-sectional study. African Journal of Emergency Medicine, 5(1), 12–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.afjem.2014.10.010
Regehr, C., & Bober, T. (2005). All in a Day’s Work: Trauma Events in the Line of Duty. In In the Line of Fire: Trauma in the Emergency Services. New York: Oxford University Press.
