Background Compared to other occupational groups, first responders experience worse mental health outcomes due to duty-related trauma and occupational stressors. Despite their best efforts, they bring stress home. Consequently, first responders and the people they rely on for support, suffer from increased psychosocial difficulties, experiencing stigma and other help-seeking barriers. Family members’ perspectives appear overlooked in the literature to date. We aimed to: (i) explore the lived experience of family members and first responders; and (ii) identify opportunities for engaging family members with existing organisational supports.
Methods Using a participatory research approach, we conducted six longitudinal focus groups involving fourteen first responders, family members and organisational representatives. All focus groups were audio recorded, transcribed and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.
Results First responders and family members shared their experiences of both joining and learning to live as members of the first responder community in Ireland. They describe their awareness of a necessary journey, representing their transition between who they were before entering this community and who they are now. Through our analysis, we identified a main theme of ‘Crossing thresholds’, characterising their transformative learning experiences- including recognising the consequences of this new role for them as individuals and for their relationship. Participants also shared how they have learned to cope with the impact of their roles and what they need to better support each other.
Conclusions Family members are often unheard, hidden members of the first responder community in Ireland, highlighting an unmet need for organisations to acknowledge this supportive role and to offer appropriate training and resources. Training for new recruits needs to move beyond the tokenistic involvement of family members to encourage knowledge sharing among experienced and novice members. Cultural change is required to support help-seeking among and foster a sense of peer support and community among first responder families.