Name of project, amount funded and description
Helping prevent moral injury among long-term care workers: A mixed methods toolkit development study. Bonnie Lashewicz, University of Calgary ($209,525)
Long-term care (LTC) is at the centre of tragic outcomes of COVID-19 and LTC workers face pronounced risk for occupational stress related injuries including moral injury. Moral injury results from guilt and/or shame that accompanies knowing what is needed yet being unable to do what is needed due to constraints outside one’s control. Moral injury is being newly and necessarily used to understand occupational stress among health-care workers during COVID-19 because compared to individually focused concepts such as anxiety, moral injury locates the source of problems in the structures and processes in which individuals are immersed.
Research question: What is needed to support mental health and help prevent moral injury among LTC workers?
Objectives: 1) gather evidence about worker mental health needs and moral injury risks, 2) collect worker evaluations of a selection of mental health support/moral injury prevention tools, and 3) create and disseminate a mental health support/moral injury prevention toolkit contoured to the needs of LTC workers in pandemic conditions.
COVID-19 physical distancing, virtual delivery of trauma therapies to trauma-affected populations. Suzette Brémault-Phillips, University of Alberta ($206,137)
COVID-19 is taking a significant toll globally on the mental health (MH) of individuals and communities, all the while prompting a change in the way that MH services are delivered. While in-person service provision is the gold standard, physical distancing has forced the use of alternate forms of delivery. MH clinicians have shifted to remote-delivery of therapies for trauma-affected populations (TAPs) including public safety personnel, military members, veterans, and civilian frontline workers. TAPs require timely access to secure digital health (DH) therapies if they are to remain able to serve their communities.
This project will examine whether DH delivery of trauma therapies works as well as in-person therapy for TAPs and the impact DH has on MH clinicians and TAPs. There is also a need to evaluate evidence to guide policy, practice, privacy/security, and implementation. This study will explore whether DH is appropriate to deliver trauma therapies to TAPs. Based on study findings, the team, with its well-established local, provincial and national relationships with TAPs communities and MH providers, will provide recommendations regarding DH use to inform decision-making.
Development of online before operational stress (BOS) programs for public safety personnel and their families. Dr. Linda Duffett-Leger, University of Calgary ($201,614)
Public safety personnel (PSP) experience heightened operational stressors, including shift work, exposure to traumatic events, and threats to personal safety. Prevalence rates for post-traumatic stress injuries (PTSI) range from eight to 44%. Children and spouses living in PSP-connected families experience the effects of this operational stress and too often programs and supports available to PSP are either unavailable to or non-inclusive of family members. An interdisciplinary team of researchers (PI: Dr. Kelly Schwartz) was recently awarded a $1 million CIHR Team Grant to expand the BOS program, a group-based education, prevention, and intervention program designed to build the strength and resiliency of PSP members, by developing and implementing the Before Operational Stress-Family program (BOS-F).
The COVID-19 pandemic has placed unprecedented strain on PSP families already impacted by operational stressors and highlights the challenges of traditional clinic-based services. The aim of this project is to rapidly transition the CIHR funded in-person programs to virtual delivery.
Assessing post-traumatic stress injuries among correctional workers in Alberta. Dr. Rose Ricciardelli, Memorial University of Newfoundland ($187,966)
Increased attention is directed toward work-related PTSI among police, firefighters, paramedics and military personnel. However, little is known about PTSI and other occupational stress injuries among those employed in correctional services at the provincial and territorial level, particularly with consideration for how COVID-19 may contribute to the development of PTSI. Previous researchers suggest rates of mental disorders are high among correctional workers.
This project will look at how COVID-19 and the overall correctional work experience are impacting the mental health and well-being of correctional staff in order to design a strategy to meet their health needs and encourage posttraumatic growth. In conducting an in-depth survey of the PTSI of correctional workers in Alberta, as well as British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and Quebec for comparative purposes, the researchers will develop understanding of how job experiences relate to correctional worker PTSI. In the end, they hope to identify how to protect a correctional worker from developing PTSI and areas of personal/psychological growth that might arise from dealing with PTSI.
Evidence-informed workplace policies and practices for the prevention of PTSI work disability. Dr. Dwayne Van Eerd, Institute for Work & Health ($172,820)
The prevalence of PTSI among first responders is high and often leads to work disability. Recent studies have shown that organizational policies and practices have an important impact on PTSI, but the scientific evidence about the effectiveness of PTSI interventions is modest at best. Regardless of the state of the scientific evidence, first responder organizations must develop ways to protect workers. The researchers propose to gather and synthesize evidence about the prevention of PTSI work disability from the scientific evidence with current practices and experiences of first responder organizations in Alberta and internationally.
The researchers propose a 3-stage data collection approach: 1) an environmental scan of international first responder organizations, 2) a review of reviews of the scientific literature, and 3) collection of current PTSI work disability prevention policies, programs, and practice from Alberta first responders. This project will engage with Alberta first responder stakeholders to co-develop the resulting evidence summary. This will help to ensure the findings are relevant and increase the uptake of knowledge to improve PTSI work disability policies and practices in Alberta.
Text4PTSI: An E-mental health solution to prevent and manage PTSI among first responders in Alberta. Dr. Vincent Agyapong, University of Alberta ($150,000)
This project involves implementing and evaluating Text4PTSI, a novel digital health program that provides daily supportive, therapeutic and educational text messages to first responders experiencing PTSI. Text4PTSI may provide mental health support for PSP already receiving mental health care or on a waitlist, and those with symptoms but have not actively sought care. To subscribe to Text4PTSI, PSP can text “PTSI” to a short code number that does not collect identifying data.
Subscribers would then complete 4 validated online mental health assessments at enrollment, 6 weeks, 3 months and the 6-month program completion date. The researchers previously launched the Text4Hope program during the COVID-19 pandemic and found that after 6 weeks of enrollment, daily text messages significantly reduced suicidal ideation (16.9% vs. 26.6%), disturbed sleep (76.1% vs. 85.1%), moderate/high stress (78.8% vs. 88.0%), anxiety (31.4% vs. 46.5%), and depression (36.8% vs. 52.1%) when compared to a control population who had not yet received the daily text messages. Similarly, the researchers hope the Text4PTSI program will significantly reduce PTSI symptoms in PSP.
Identifying risk factors for developing post-traumatic stress injuries following musculoskeletal injury. Dr. Doug Gross, University of Alberta ($49,494)
Work-related accidents and events that are experienced by first responders and emergency health care workers often result in physical injuries to bones, muscles, and joints. Sometimes the traumatic accidents causing physical injuries also result in mental health injuries such as PTSI. Workers with both physical and mental health injuries are much less likely to recover (2 times less likely in Alberta PTSI rehabilitation programs).
This has important implications for first responders, who are frequently exposed to psychologically traumatic events in the workplace and are particularly susceptible to developing work-related PTSI. Early identification and treatment of PTSI in first responders experiencing physical injuries could help them recover faster. Using data from WCB-Alberta, the researchers will study risk factors for developing PTSI following physical injury. This research will help clinicians to assess and treat first responders who are at risk for complicated outcomes. This research will contribute information that is important to improving worker recovery after injury and help them successfully return to work.