Public Safety Personnel’s Perceptions of Mental Health Training
Risk factors are modifiable individual factors associated with many different mental health challenges for the general population and public safety personnel (PSP). In the current study, individual resilience describes how a person perceives their own ability to cope with difficult situations. Individual resilience is associated with lower levels of mental health challenges. The current study was designed to assess how effective Emotional Resilience Skills Training (ERST) is at reducing risk factors and increasing individual resilience among PSP from different sectors. Risk and resilience were assessed at three time points: just before completing ERST, just after completing ERST, and one year after completing ERST. Results indicated participants at post-training reported lower scores on measures of risk factors and higher scores on a measure of resilience. The improvements were maintained for at least one year after completing ERST. Therefore, the current results support ERST as effective for lowering risk and increasing individual resilience among PSP, which may in turn reduce their risk for developing mental health challenges.
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Research Summary
Why was the study done?
We wanted to understand the perceptions and reactions of public safety personnel (PSP) to a new mental health training program called the Emotional Resilience Skills Training (ERST). ERST is based on the Unified Protocol (UP) for the transdiagnostic treatment of mental disorders is a manualized Cognitive Behavioral Therapy protocol for emotional disorders that was explicitly designed and evaluated to address a broad range of mental health symptoms.
What was done in the study?
The study team used self-report surveys and focus groups to assess:
(1) the extent to which the ERST improved mental health challenges of PSP;
(2) whether the PSP have applied ERST skills;
(3) the extent to which the ERST skills helped the PSP to manage at least one difficult situation; and
(4) whether they would recommend ERST to fellow PSP.
What did we find out?
Most participating PSP indicated that the ERST was helpful for improving their mental health, reported applying ERST knowledge and/or skills to manage stress or emotions during or since the ERST (i.e., 96%), and most of the participants reported having applied ERST knowledge and/or skills to manage stress or emotions during or since the ERST (i.e., 83%). The participants provided details related to managing difficult situations which were qualitatively coded into three categories (i.e., at work, with family, internal). The majority of participants (i.e., 96%) would recommend the ERST to fellow PSP.
Where do we go from here?
ERST is currently being revised based on the PSP’s feedback, with the possibility of ongoing deployment and evaluations.
Original Study
Jolan Nisbet, Shannon Sauer-Zavala, Katie L. Andrews, Robyn E. Shields, Kirby Q. Maguire, Taylor. A. Teckchandani, Ronald R. Martin, Gregory P. Krätzig & R. Nicholas Carleton (23 Sep 2024): Public safety personnel’s perceptions of mental health training: an assessment of the Emotional Resilience Skills Training, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, DOI: 10.1080/16506073.2024.2402995