EMERGENCY SERVICES PERSONNEL have told how they often struggle to cope mentally with the trauma of responding to incidents of suicide, prompting a group of academics to carry out a major study into the area.

Dr Aine O’Donovan, a senior lecturer in University College Cork, along with her colleague Dr John Goodwin, began her work after initial discussions with volunteer community first responders. 

They have spoken to emergency response professionals from a range of organisations as part of their work so far.

The study is examining the impact on the emergency services, particularly gardaí, ambulance and fire service personnel who must go to devastating and traumatic scenes where people have died by suicide.

O’Donovan said that she and her colleagues hope that the study will also reach out to voluntary groups like local Coast Guard units, community first responders, priests and other religious leaders who often attend such calls. 

“Just from conversing with people and people contacting me, it’s a lot of sleepless nights – that is the big thing.

“They are wondering if they did everything they could and doubting their own professional ability, no matter how long they’ve been in service.

“I’ve also heard, anecdotally from emergency response professionals, they’re worried about colleagues and particularly junior colleagues, and trying to engage in that peer level support, trying to set up systems internally within small groups that it’s okay to pick up the phone to your colleague and say they didn’t sleep after that call last night or that they found they were really cranky at home with their partner,” she said.

She said that in their research phase that the team also found evidence of higher rates of suicide in the emergency services internationally.  

“It is of concern, and it’s about time Ireland actually puts investment into this.

“Some of the figures I’ve seen anecdotally, I was quite surprised about the amounts of calls they are responding to, even the mountain rescue, the Coast Guard, that are actually suspected suicide.

“It’s quite frightening, actually,” she added. 

O’Donovan said the research will be conducted in two parts -  a largescale survey of emergency services personnel and then a qualitative study on specific evidence and experiences from gardaí, paramedics and firefighters. 

The ultimate goal, the psychologist said, is to devise a training programme to help deal with the pressures of dealing with the incidents. 

While the research is not complete O’Donovan believes that a critical way to finding coping mechanisms for first responders is to bolster so-called peer support. This is where emergency services personnel have a way to deal with the adverse mental health experiences among their own teams or units. 

Many of the organisations have that system in place already but O’Donovan believes it could go further and there could be a way to make it more tailored to the specifics of the work of the emergency services.

O’Donovan said that the key is to making the culture supportive rather than the mental health impacts going unnoticed and then growing. She said it is also important to establish that seeking help is not a sign of weakness. 

“I suppose a lot of people going into these professions, maybe don’t realise that the variety of things they’re going to respond to, it’s such that you can’t prepare somebody and you don’t know how you’re going to react.

“But the supports must allow them to feel it’s okay. No matter what way you react, it’s okay. You are a human being. You are a person.”

• Samaritans 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org
• Text About It - text HELLO to 50808 (mental health issues)
• Aware 1800 80 48 48 (depression, anxiety)
• Pieta House 1800 247 247 or text HELP to 51444 – (suicide, self-harm)
• Teen-Line Ireland 1800 833 634 (for ages 13 to 19)
• Childline 1800 66 66 66 (for under 18s)