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There has been wide debate around early interventions following traumatic exposures. Many of the studies examining the effectiveness of debriefing have not been undertaken in a workplace setting for which they were designed. The study was undertaken with prison staff and evaluated the debriefing provided as part of a trauma support programme provided by the prison service. This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness and a programme of support for prison service staff following a traumatic incident within a prison environment.

Prison staff exposed to a range of traumatic events were offered debriefing. Measurements were taken soon after the incident and again one month later. The scores of those receiving debriefing were compared with those who did not receive debriefing.

The results showed that the prison staff receiving debriefing showed a significant reduction in their traumatic stress, anxiety and depression scores. There was no significant difference in the symptoms of the non-debriefed group.

The findings suggest that group-based well structured debrief sessions can be useful in reducing symptoms of post-traumatic stress following exposure to critical incidents in the workplace. The findings were accepted with the limitation that the groups were self-selecting, a randomised control trial was not allowed for the purpose of this study due to ethical concerns.

The results suggest that there are benefits in undertaking group debriefing within an organisational setting.

The focus of the present study was on police officers reactions to and memories of a manhunt after a shooting incident. Emotional impact and memories of these events are discussed in relation to time elapsed, support from co‐workers, supervisors and professional debriefing.

A total of 11 police officers responding to a mass shooting carried out by a young offender resulting in seven dead civilians were asked to describe the event ten months after the event, five years after the event, and again nine years after the event.

All police officers reported having vivid memories of the mass shooting incident, and visual and auditory memories of the event were best retained, although a decline was observed nine years after the incident. Regarding working through the traumatic experience, the police officers had not been offered professional help in connection with the mass shooting incident.

Owing to the fact that police officers in the present study answered the survey anonymously, it was not possible to work out repeated measures statistics for these memories over time.

Knowing that the psychological distress due to exposure to a traumatic event may be long lasting, it is crucial that police organizations consider time as an important factor in working through these experiences.

Research on emotion and memory is highly relevant to the work of police officers and to the legal system.

Operational debriefing and psychological debriefing both involve groups of participants (typically from the emergency services) discussing a critical incident. Research on post‐incident debriefing has previously raised concerns over the likelihood that this discussion may affect not only psychological responses, but also memory integrity. It is possible that discussion in this setting could increase susceptibility to the misinformation effect. This paper seeks to address these issues.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether including a warning to the debriefing instructions about the possibility of memory contamination could reduce the misinformation effect. Participants viewed a stressful film, and were assigned to one of three conditions: debriefing with standard instructions, debriefing with a memory warning, or an individual recall control condition. Free recall memory and distress for the film were assessed.

Results indicate that participants in both debriefing conditions reported significantly more misinformation than those who did not participate in a discussion. Additionally it was found that the warning of memory contamination did not diminish the misinformation effect.

These findings are discussed with suggestions for the future of debriefing, with a particular focus on the emergency services.

How firefighters cope with critical incidents is partly influenced by the culture of the fire brigade. The purpose of this study is to better understand how informal peer support helps firefighters cope with critical incidents.

An ethnographic field study of explorative nature was conducted. Data were collected by means of 20 participating observations and 72 interviews with Dutch firefighters from 37 different fire brigades. The analysis was an iterative process alternating data collection, analysis and theory formation processes.

Firefighters will turn to informal peer support to cope with critical incidents provided that facilitating circumstances are present and there is adherence to certain implicit rules. The collective sharing of memories, whether immediately post-incident or after the passage of time, helps firefighters process critical incidents and serves to promote unit cohesion. Most firefighters reported these informal debriefings to be preferable to the formal sessions. By comparison, a minority of firefighters reported that they did not benefit at all from the informal interactions.

This study only focused on the informal peer support given by colleagues. Future research should focus on: (1) The possible differences between men and women as to what extent informal peer support is experienced after critical incidents, (2) Commanding officers: how do they, given their hierarchical position, experience coming to terms with critical incidents, (3) Premeditated critical incidents and the role of informal peer support, (4) Similarities and differences between career and non-career firefighters in experiencing and coping critical incidents.

Firefighters are an under-researched group in academic literature, that would benefit from mental health counsellors having a better understanding of their unique work culture and the complexity of the firefighting profession. More knowledge about the role of informal peer support is necessary to tailor help and aftercare more effectively to their needs.

Most studies confirm the importance of informal peer support when coping with critical incidents. This study provides initial, in-depth evidence of the role of informal peer support in helping firefighters cope with critical incidents.

The role of the psychologist is unique within a law enforcement agency. This role is often misunderstood by those designing job descriptions and hiring the psychologist. The psychologist is often called on to serve law enforcement needs through such techniques as a psychological autopsy, or consultant with an SWAT Unit and at the same time serve as the pre-employment/fit-for-duty screening psychologist. One role serves the needs of the department as a fellow law enforcement practitioner and the other serves the department's managers in selection and retention issues. A psychologist can fill many, sometimes multiple roles within a law enforcement agency. This chapter helps to define those roles. It will help define each of the many roles the psychologist can fill and will also identify and examine potential ethical conflicts, including problems with dual relationships and conflicts of interest within these roles.

Developing resilience is vital for firefighters and other practitioners exposed to trauma as part of their day-to-day work in maintaining physical and mental resilience. However, further understanding of what factors facilitate and hinder the development of firefighter resilience and why is needed. The current study evaluates efficacy of support mechanisms currently in place and develops an evidence base for interventions to support development of firefighter resilience.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 firefighters from across two regions in the United Kingdom, the Northwest and Southeast of England. Thematic analysis was used to analyse transcripts, highlighting themes within, and across, services to identify what factors affect development of firefighter resilience and why.

Thematic analysis highlighted four key themes shared by firefighters across regions: “informal support”, “formal support”, “basic welfare measures” and “trust”. Importantly, how effective formal measures are perceived to be and the willingness for firefighters to access these resources was dependent upon the level of trust held in senior management. Firefighters across locations highlighted levels of trust were affected by industrial actions which created divides. Accordingly, one way firefighter resilience may be further promoted is by altering how formal support mechanisms are accessed.

Although existing research has found factors which promote resilience of firefighters, evaluation of specific services is lacking. The current research highlights areas among two UK services where resilience is effectively being promoted and areas for potential improvement.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the stressors involved in an occupation at potential risk – the profession of law enforcement.

The paper reviews the history of police stress studies. It describes prevention and treatment programs that have unfortunately not been sufficiently utilized because of the police culture.

The documented symptoms of stress include digestive orders, cardiovascular diseas, alcoholism, domestic violence, post‐traumatic stress disorder, depression and suicide. While some police officers start their careers in excellent physical health, some retire early or even die from job‐related stress disorders if the cumulative impact of stress exacts its toll.

The paper offers a description of COP.2.COP a confidential hotline for officers and their families staffed by retired officers and licensed professionals.

The purpose of this paper is to explore a better understanding of Holistic Debriefing processes from a learning perspective.

During a terror attack in which 69 people were killed and 66 were wounded, a Search and Rescue crew experienced “fear of death” while giving life-saving help to victims of the attack. Afterwards, the crew conducted a Holistic Debriefing. The crew participated in interviews to share their experience of this type of debriefing.

The findings from the Holistic Debriefing sessions suggest that the debriefing process was experienced as positive in terms of social support, emotions and meaning. These experiences are further explained from a learning perspective.

This research was conducted on a small group of individuals experiencing an extreme situation, and findings may not readily generalize to other populations or situations.

Holistic Debriefing has been adopted by an increasing number of squadrons in the Norwegian Air Force.

Holistic Debriefing has been implemented at the Norwegian Air Force Academy, and may be relevant for other units involved in similar operations.

This study is unique when it comes to exploring Holistic Debriefing of rescue personnel in the aftermath of a terror attack. Moreover, Holistic Debriefing is also addressed as a reflection process in order to enhance individual and group learning processes.

Personnel who work in emergency medical services (EMS) face work environments which are high stress. These can lead to burnout, secondary traumatic stress (STS), and a reduction of compassion satisfaction (CS). However, very little is known about what individual and work factors influence these negative coping mechanisms in EMS personnel. It is also unknown how perceived organizational and coworker support, debriefing methods, or individual characteristics are associated with the aforementioned coping mechanisms in EMS personnel. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A cross-sectional administration of surveys to Florida EMS personnel was done. A total of 351 individuals who regularly performed EMS tasks completed the survey. Three regression analyses were carried out, utilizing the three ProQOL 5 subscales as the dependent variables. The Perceived Coworker Support survey, Survey of Perceived Organizational Support, the Brief Resilience Survey and questions regarding debriefing practices were included.

Both organizational support and psychological resilience were found to be related to higher CS as well as lower burnout and STS. Coworker support was associated with higher CS. Informal debriefing was associated with higher CS and lower burnout. Several individual factors were also statistically significant, specifically education with CS, being a volunteer and race with burnout, and working part time or volunteering with STS.

There are limitations due to the nature of cross-sectional survey design and due to the sample size. The varying circumstances which EMS personnel work also hinders generalizability.

This study displays statistical relationships between factors which EMS agencies could use to increase employee job satisfaction and potentially reduce turnover.

Investigates situations that were perceived as stressful by Swedish police officers and the kind of support and help they had received in connection with that. A total of 162 respondents took part in the study. Results show that most of the traumatic experiences reported by police officers occurred early on in their careers. The traumatic experiences often remained in their memories in the form of visual, tactile, and olfactory sensations. A variety of stress reactions were described in connection with these experiences. As regards ways of working through the traumatic experiences, more than half reported that it helped them to talk about the event with their colleagues. Only a few had been offered debriefing or professional help in connection with the event. A notable finding is that the majority of the officers did not receive any support at all from their superiors in connection with the event.