Public safety personnel (PSP), which include police, fire, paramedics, dispatchers and correctional staff, are chronically exposed to traumatic stress incidents, placing them at increased risk of developing mental health disorders and dying by suicide. This group also faces significant barriers accessing mental healthcare. One possible solution to this is the use of peer support programs to provide judgement-free support from someone who has been there.

OnCall is a smartphone app that was developed by a team at McMaster University in partnership with members of the public safety community. It connects Public Safety Personnel with trained peer supporters who can provide them with mental health assistance.

There is some evidence to suggest that peer supporters can also experience mental health difficulties from being exposed to other people’s trauma.

Individuals who are precariously housed or currently experiencing homelessness have complex needs that traditional mental health care is poorly equipped to serve. There is a clear gap in the delivery of services that address the experience of trauma in vulnerably housed individuals. There are rarely any services for the effects of psychological trauma in publicly funded hospitals and those that do exist are often inaccessible to vulnerably housed populations. Barriers include costs of transport to attend treatment, previous bad experiences in hospitals, substance abuse, brain injury which can make planning difficult and the persistent chaos of living on or near the streets. To address this, we are using the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST) to develop a trauma-informed care intervention specific to vulnerably housed patients

Due to the nature of their employment, first responders (including firefighters, paramedics and police officers) regularly encounter emergency situations, and are frequently exposed to critical stress incidents either as witnesses or victims1. Routine exposure to these dangerous, often life-threatening and potentially traumatizing incidents, places first responders at increased risk of developing mental disorders such as: post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, generalized anxiety disorder, alcohol use disorder and the development of suicidal thoughts.

To address this, we are conducting a two-part study which will inform the development of a First Responder Operational Stress Injury Clinic.

In 2015, 6,825 people in Ottawa were living in emergency shelters and an estimated 500 people were living on the streets. There is a high rate of mental health disorders among this population, including high rates of trauma and PTSD, depression, substance use disorder, and psychosis. This is further complicated by a lack of access to care among the precariously housed. To address this, we conducted a feasibility study which compared narrative exposure therapy (NET) to NET plus a session with a genealogist.