Trade Publication Article

MINDING THE MIND OF EMS-PART I

Pepe, Paul E, Maloney, Lauren M, Doerries, Bryan L, Crowe, Remle P, Schneider, Sandra M, Antevy, Peter M, Colwell, Christopher B, Hoffman, Jason

2020

Overview

The impact of EMS responses on the mental well-being of public safety personnel was appreciated long before the COVID-19 pandemic, but frank discussion about best practices in mitigation and interventions were largely lacking.1'2 Although more recent attempts to address compassion fatigue and cultural diversity have helped refocus considerations of psychological wellness in the EMS workforce, many gaps remain in identifying best practices.\" The real possibility of unknowingly and unintentionally spreading the virus adds a subliminal fear to EMS response and undoubtedly is a source of more \"guilt\" and additional stress (note the common observation of EMS personnel sleeping in their vehicles to avoid potential contamination of those at home). Within months, the deaths attributed to COVID-19 in New York state, for example, far surpassed the deaths attributed to the 9/11 World Trade Center attack.'8 This realization had a particular impact on the New York EMS community, whose collective consciousness still weighs heavy with the deaths of colleagues from 9/11-related llnesses, even decades later.'2 Those in many other jurisdictions now dealing with the impact of COVID-19 deaths may have also experienced their own prior mass-casualty tragedies or other horrific events, reigniting those emotions. Doing this over and over, day in and day out, will no doubt have lasting psychological consequence.8'19 Adding to this emotional burden is the burden of responsibility for understanding and carrying out the evolving directives for crisis standards of care and modified operational guidelines-and the fear of not getting it right or not performing as optimally as we expected.

• Publisher: HMP Communications
• Subject: Coping / Coronaviruses / COVID-19 / Disease transmission / Emotions / Fatalities / Fear & phobias / Mass murders / Pandemics / Public safety