"Change in a Northwestern Ontario professional fire service’s critical incident exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder risk during the COVID-19 pandemic"
Presented by Kate M. Posluszny
, Doctoral Student, Kinesiology
, University of Waterloo.
Firefighters are repeatedly exposed to critical incidents (CIs), which are work-related traumatic events that increase their risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted firefighters’ risk of developing PTSD. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to determine whether there were any changes in the Thunder Bay Fire Rescue firefighters’ mental health burden, which assessed whether CI exposure and PTSD risk were altered during the COVID-19 pandemic.