An Investigation Into the Relationship Between Long-term Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms and Coping in Australian Volunteer Firefighters

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between coping style and long-term posttraumatic stress symptoms in an Australian sample of volunteer firefighters 84 months following a bushfire disaster. A total of 277 firefighters completed 4 questionnaires to assess patterns of psychiatric morbidity. A 2-way repeated-measures analysis of variance was conducted to investigate the effect of time and disorder on coping. Firefighters evidencing distress were more likely to use both problem- and emotion-focused methods of coping. Based on previous research, it was hypothesized that problem-focused coping strategies would be used after 84 months. The use of both problem- and emotion-focused coping may be due to the length of time following this disaster or unique characteristics of firefighters. These data suggest that present coping theories are not sufficient to account for the onset and pattern of psychiatric morbidity within a firefighter sample. The authors declare no conflicts of interest including financial, consultant, institutional, and other relationships that might lead to bias.

Volunteering research in Australia: A narrative review

“…Some volunteering roles put the volunteers in potentially traumatic circumstances that can severely impact their mental health. Doley, Bell, and Watt () found that 29% of the volunteer firefighters who were deployed during Ash Wednesday Bushfire disaster qualified for a PTSD diagnosis. These findings clearly illustrate that volunteers who have potentially traumatic tasks need access to coping support that is comparable to the support that paid professionals in similar roles have access to.…”

A systematic review of the health impacts of occupational exposure to wildland fires

“…Of the 32 articles, the majority (17/32) described fires that took place in North America. Seven articles described the outcomes of the firefighters who managed the 1983 Ash Wednesday bush fire in Southeastern Australia [19][20][21][22][23][24][25], while additional 2 articles discussed the 2010 Carmel Forest fire in Israel [26,27]. The authors assigned most (28/32) articles a low or moderate quality score.…”

“…The authors identified 11 articles that examined the mental health impact of wildland firefighting. Seven of these articles examined the same group, a cohort composed of volunteer firefighters who responded to the Ash Wednesday bushfire disaster in Australia [19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. All of these studies were of low quality.…”

“…Neither self-reported severity of exposure nor individual losses sustained predicted post-traumatic morbidity [20,21,24]; however, the personality traits of neuroticism and introversion did predict the development of post-traumatic stress disorder [22]. The cohort originally assembled by McFarlane [25] was surveyed again by Doley et al [19] 7 years after the Ash Wednesday fire. Of the 469 individuals who originally responded to McFarlane, 277 responded to Doley et al [19] (the response rate of 59%).…”

“…The cohort originally assembled by McFarlane [25] was surveyed again by Doley et al [19] 7 years after the Ash Wednesday fire. Of the 469 individuals who originally responded to McFarlane, 277 responded to Doley et al [19] (the response rate of 59%). Almost one-third of respondents reported psychological morbidity 7 years after the Ash Wednesday fire [19].…”