Moose Jaw researcher highlights toll of pandemic on first responders

First responders like police and EMS crews already deal with high levels of stress at their jobs.

But what happens when you add a global pandemic to the mix?

That’s what a recent pair of studies sought to uncover. Led by Lindsey Boechler, the research chair at Saskatchewan Polytechnic and a Moose Javian, the studies surveyed front-line workers with some startling results.

We all know the early days of the pandemic were extremely uncertain. However, for first responders who had to stay on the front line through it all, the stress was almost overwhelming.

“There was a significant report of increased stress, exhaustion, anxiety, and an overall decline in mental health for first-line professionals out there,” Boechler said. “One of the biggest things was how detrimental it was when the gyms closed and they lost those routine activities that they really depend on for coping outlets.”

In the early days of the pandemic, first responders reported feeling overwhelmed and a sense of disillusionment due to an influx of information from upper management.

“Initially there was a lot of confusion as to what best practice actually was,” Boechler said. “So first responders were getting multiple emails in a day, that there was a lot of conflicting information, or that information pertinent to them was buried under a tonne of bullet points.

“However, services that had established trust between workers and management and practised two-way communication saw a really positive impact.”

Boechler’s research started with surveying EMS workers and police officers within Saskatchewan in the first weeks of the pandemic. The EMS study grew to include a national and soon even an international scope. The earliest data was definitely alarming.

“At the time, COVID cases were just beginning to rise across the province,” Boechler reported. “This was when that worst-case scenario was being projected, where hundreds of thousands of people would fall ill and thousands would die across the province. So the responses really reflected uncertainty regarding what might happen and the potential of the virus.

“It was quite grim at the time.”

As the survey expanded and time went on, however, the findings became a little more optimistic, especially as more information about the virus was discovered and responders could be trained to deal with it.

“It was found that those practitioners who received training above and beyond regular training and who were provided with enhanced PPE did feel more comfortable, even though they were more likely to come into contact with a patient who was COVID positive,” Boechler said.

Boechler hopes her research will help change pandemic response in the future so that front-line workers won’t have to bear so much of the burden.

“I think that the repercussions of the mental health impacts are going to be long term for our first responders,” Boechler said. “We need to prepare for them to have a long road ahead of them and provide the support that they need.”

Daniel McElroy, Discover Moose Jaw