Published works

Firefighters’ role in emergency management exposes them to a range of stressors. It is recognised that a small but sometimes significant proportion of firefighters will develop mental health problems that may create significant distress and costs to the individual and the fire service. However, the literature is inconclusive not only about the prevalence of the commonly experienced mental health disorders associated with exposure to potentially traumatic events (Heinrichs et al., 2005; Del Ben et al., 2006; Regehr et al., 2003), but also about the range of factors associated with their development (Marmar et al., 2006; Meyer et al., 2012; Di Gangi et al., 2013).

This paper presents the findings of a longitudinal study of mental health in Australian firefighters that is being conducted in the course of a PhD. 335 firefighters from four Australian fire services completed a self-report survey twice, 12 months apart, and 300 firefighters participated in a structured clinical interview. The purpose of the study was to establish the prevalence rates, and the factors which contributed to the development of posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety and alcohol disorder in this sample of career and volunteer firefighters.