Volunteer firefighters have limited up-to-date training and awareness in applied coping skills and trauma informed practice (TIP). Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) has been a standard of practice within emergency services — including fire rescue services — for decades in Northern British Columbia. With new developments in TIP, I suggest we can further improve volunteer firefighters’ wellness by exploring specific coping strategies. The purpose of this endeavour was to interview volunteer firefighters, explore their experiences, and better understand their coping styles and approaches to managing stress related to the work. In the exploration of critical incident coping skills, a qualitative methodology and thematic analysis was applied. This study adds to the current literature on work-related coping, and hopefully increases awareness of best practices for psychological safety and wellness of volunteer firefighters in Northern British Columbia.
The purpose of this study was to determine whether emotional intelligence and proactive coping had an effect on firefighters' susceptibility to developing post-traumatic stress. This study compared data from an existing sample of 94 firefighters. Data was split by subscale for the Impact of Events Scale - Revised questionnaire, and was analyzed using regression. The results indicated that firefighters higher in emotional intelligence experienced greater symptoms of avoidance than firefighters lower in emotional intelligence. Additionally, the data supported the hypothesis that firefighters who were higher in proactive coping would experience less anxiety. However, results of the study indicated that emotional intelligence did not influence symptoms of hyperarousal, intrusions, or anxiety, and proactive coping does not predict avoidance, hyperarousal, or intrusions.
Midlife is a time when many women encounter life changes. Mind and body exercise programs such as t'ai chi and yoga continue to increase in popularity as a way to manage with life stressors and enhance well-being. A new form of exercise called Neuromuscular Integrative Action, ...also known as Nia, has been added to the mind and body paradigm. I used a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to better understand the role Nia has as a mind and body movement form with eight women in midlife and its potential for counselors to consider, as an adjunctive therapeutic means to aid in managing and enhancing greater well-being. The findings were set within the reflective interpretations across the four lifeworld existentials of time, body, relationship, and space. The women's narratives revealed: 1) reflections through time in representations of stories of the past - childhood, shifting and tragic, living in the moment, and future glimpses, 2) the body's wisdom ~ the body's movement in representations of body being ~ body listening, music ~ movement ~ emotions, and energetic connections ~ spiritual connections, 3) transforming relationships were understood through representations of self-discovery ~ self-acceptance, self-expression ~ self-care, and compassionate responses, and 4) living well-being in midlife spaces emerged as representations of a welcoming and safe space, making connections with other women, and well-being in midlife ~ lived as a life style. Further synthesis and discussion focuses on an overarching theme of how the revisioning of self-identity of midlife women practicing Nia leads to a sense of wellness through reconstructions of the reflective self, the connected self, the authentic self, and the contextualized self. Finally, considerations related to aligning social identity with well-being are also discussed.
Professional burnout is a circumstance that can result from accumulated occupational stress among those who do caregiving work. The effects of burnout tend to be physiological, behavioral, psychological, spiritual and clinical in nature thus impacting individuals and human service systems. The term burnout was first coined by Dr. Herbert Freudenberger in the early 1970's and since that time burnout has been discussed extensively. The goal of this project was to develop my understanding of professional burnout, using my own experience as a social worker as the foundation for my inquiry. This project presents a conceptual model of burnout, resulting from the integration of the available literature on this topic, with my own professional experience. This model conceptualized the individual factors, including organizational and client variables, that can contribute to the risk for burnout among social workers, or other helping professionals. This project highlighted the interplay between individual and systemic variables pertinent to burnout and it suggested that there are both risk factors and protective factors that can be explored when assessing burnout. The conceptual model and the assessment tool illustrated in this project, provides social workers with a framework for discussing, preventing, assessing, and/or treating professional burnout.--Page ii.
