It is becoming increasingly apparent that police officers, firefighters, medical personnel and other first-responders need improved trauma resilience skills in order to cope effectively with the many challenges encountered during traumatic emergency situations. There is growing evidence that trauma can have a long-term health impact on these workers. One of those impacts is the development of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is an anxiety disorder that can develop following the stress of emergency situations. In the framework of the first responders’ culture, where emergencies are the priority and finding time for training is sometimes almost impossible, the idea of providing online learning opportunities for training in the area of trauma resilience was analyzed and implemented.
A multidisciplinary group integrating police officers, firefighters and paramedics was linked together with instructional designers, multimedia developers and research experts to design and determine the effectiveness of online training for trauma resilience. Once the web course was developed, its efficiency was tested by a group of first responders across Canada. This presentation will share the amazing findings of this case study, the challenges of developing online learning resources for trauma resilience, the impact of the first responders’ culture on training possibilities online and the limits and opportunities of online learning for mental health in general, and for trauma resilience in particular. The audience will be able to learn from the experience and build bridges between this case study and similar training possibilities for mental health and other similar disciplines.
Of Interest to: Online and distance education, Program developers, instructional designers, LMS administrators and IT.
