First respondents are the first people who respond immediately to the scene of an emergency or accident. Firefighters, police, and technicians in the medical field face draining, dangerous and challenging situations on their line of duty. These traumatic events repeatedly occur to the first respondent, whose effects are directly linked to other parties' specifically family members. Therefore, this research paper discusses the possible significant stressors and impacts in the first respondents' families as reviewed from other literature papers.
Emergency personnel is subject to depressive and post-traumatic stress systems in their field of work. Daily, first respondents are engaged in events that involve suffering and human pain, which causes lasting effects on the mental image. For instance, although they are well acquainted in dealing with events such as rescuing victims of fire breakouts, crashed vehicles, and collecting carcasses of victims involved in suicidal cases, these images are difficult to erase in their minds. According to various research on the possible effects of emergency workers, researchers found that direct exposure to destruction and death are major causes of trauma and depressive symptoms. These symptoms are evident in different forms, such as substance use, suicide, anger, recurrent dreams, loss of concentration, and stress. Consequently, the symptoms affect the welfare, health of the first respondent and the family at large.
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Major Stressors To The First Respondent
Dramatic events are major stressors in the emergency personnel in their field of duty. In line with the press findings and research literature, bus crashes leading to children's death, mass casualties such as natural disasters, train wreck, airplane crashes, naval ship explosions, and terrorist attacks are the critical events encountered by the emergency workers. However, the patient's death while in care of a respondent, child death, being assaulted by the public, mass casualties exposure, death of colleagues while on duty, and responder's life being on threat are primary causes of distress. These events result in stress to the extent of depression, hence the close family members.
Child death in the hands of the responder is a major contributor to traumatic stress among respondents. Respondents can recall the scene details in the event of a child's abuse and neglect. For instance, from various research interviews, it is evident that the respondent's image of young child's throat slit by the biological parent, bitten viciously and burned to death by use of boiling water are vivid images not erasable. Despite several years of experience, these events lead to distress and recurrent nightmares. This distress is contributed by the inability to understand the reasons for the occurrences of children's death and abuse. Besides, the misery of other people adds to the trauma caused by the death of a child. For example, the feelings of a mother of a dead child expressed through screaming are heart-wrenching. Thus, a child's abuse and death is a major stressor of the first respondent.
Violence towards others, such as rape and inhumanities, may be common in television shows but are common stressors in the field of emergency work. For instance, experiences such as fatal bleeding, breathing difficulties, and suicidal murder often encountered by the police, firefighters, and medical technicians are very distressing, which other people might view differently. Other experiences, such as finding someone almost dead in the scene of violence, accident, and fire, are disgusting scenes, leading to the first respondent's traumatic stress. According to Regehr and Bober (2005), a firefighter and a police officer described their encounter at the suicidal-murder scene. A woman had her abdomen and throat cut though alive were confronted. Therefore, violence involving the pain and death of the victims contributes to stress among respondents.
The death of a colleague during the execution of his or her duties is also a common stressor among the first respondents. The death of a worker while on duty adversely affects the respondents' physiological thinking in line with their daily activities to assist the members of the public. For instance, a study conducted on the death of a police officer, partner, or colleague committing suicide was among the top stressing events in the occupation. Besides, a colleague's death may occur, leaving the emergency respondent at risk of personal injury or even death. Thus, the repeated images occur, causing traumatic stress, leading to depression of the first respondent.
The traumatic events contribute to health and lifestyle behavioral changes such as substance use, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Depression is a common case among first respondents with different degrees of depression and severity, led by a high degree of stressors. For instance, evidence shows that 21.4% of medical emergency workers were victims of medical depressions. Also, in the firefighters' respondents, 16.85% of volunteer firefighters and 13.6% of career firefighters were found to be in the depression state. According to Bowler et al., (2016), police officers are not exceptional in depression, where 24.7% are victims of depression. Therefore, traumatic events lead to depression among the first respondents, affecting their health conditions.
Substance use is another effect of stressors resulting from traumatic events as a way of relieving stress. Medical emergency workers, police officers, and firefighters, both genders are victims of substance abuse, such as alcohol. Once they abuse the substance, relief to their stressors occurs, thereby becoming addict over time. Studies have shown that among the police officers involved in the Hurricane Katrina investigation, they were deeply engaged in heavy alcoholic drinks, after which the number of alcoholic drinks increased drastically from two to seven percent ( Hesketh, Cooper, & Ivy, (2015 ). According to Stanley et al., (2017), evidence shows that firefighters are involved in high alcohol use for both volunteers and career firefighters, both female and male. Hence, it is evident that substance abuse is a major impact of stressors among the first respondents.
The personal support network, specifically the family members of the first respondent, is greatly influenced by the traumatic events' effects. To manage the stress experienced by the first respondents, support by the family is vital. However, the emergency worker's choice of occupation affects the family members, notably, respondent's safety, interference of family activities due to unpredictable working hours, health issues, and odd working hours. At the occurrence of critical events, these fears are pronounced, and with time, the responder develops the coping strategies, which are a source of stress to the families. Also, trauma causes the first respondent to feel emotionally distant and disengaged with the family members leading to strains in their duty.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the significant stressors among the first respondents were dramatic events such as child death, the violence of others, and colleagues' death in their line of duty. These stressors were noted to impact their health negatively through traumatic stress and depression. Consequently, they develop negative behavior, for instance, substance abuse, which are the coping strategies in their occupation and the cause of stress to their families. In the long run, their families are affected indirectly. In order to manage stress among the first respondents, the families should be keen to realize the trauma symptoms and take the appropriate action immediately. For instance, seeking a psychologist to advise the respondent and encouraging the respondent, keeping in touch after work, quick to listen to them, and being patient in case of abnormal reactions from the respondent are key measures that assist in managing stress.
References
Bowler, R. M., Kornblith, E. S., Li, J., Adams, S. W., Gocheva, V. V., Schwarzer, R., & Cone, J. E. (2016). Police officers who responded to 9/11: Comorbidity of PTSD, depression, and anxiety 10–11 years later. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 59 (6), 425–436. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.22588
Hesketh, I., Cooper, C. L., & Ivy, J. (2015). Well-being, austerity and policing: Is it worth investing in resilience training? The Police Journal, 88 (3), 220–230.
Regehr, C., & Bober, T. (2005). In the line of fire: Trauma in the emergency services . Oxford University Press.
Stanley, I. H., Boffa, J. W., Hom, M. A., Kimbrel, N. A., & Joiner, T. E. (2017). Differences in psychiatric symptoms and barriers to mental health care between volunteer and career firefighters. Psychiatry Research, 247, 236–242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2016.11.037
