Dalhousie researcher examines trauma experienced by volunteer firefighters
Posted Nov 24, 2019 02:49:45 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Robin Campbell spent 10 years as a volunteer firefighter with the Wolfville Fire Department.
Now, she's taken a different route, and is earning her PhD at Dalhousie University through the School of Occupational Therapy.
But her previous life as a firefighter has led Campbell to a little-studied topic — the impact of stress and trauma on volunteer firefighters.
“My time as a volunteer firefighter made me realize that more research is needed and we need to start exploring this,” she tells NEWS 95.7's The Todd Veinotte Show.
Across Canada, 83 per cent of firefighters are volunteers. The rate is as high as 90 per cent in Nova Scotia.
“A lot of people don't realize that,” Campbell explains. “This isn't their every day job, they're doing this as part of their spare time to give back to their community.”
The PhD student says there are a number of reasons people become volunteer firefighters, from wanting to help their neighbours to following in their family's footsteps.
“It's exciting to be part of something where you get to help people in such a way that you normally wouldn't get to do in an every day job,” she says. “It's also really rewarding volunteer experience.”
But as many people learn, it's not all fire poles and big red trucks.
“Just seeing all the different experiences firefighters are having, and realizing that people don't really know what is going on for volunteer firefighters,” Campbell says.
When Campbell she joined in 2006, there weren't many firefighters speaking out about the stress of the job.
“When I joined that was really not talked about. Maybe in the last year or two it's starting to be talked about more, but it's certainly still not explored enough in that understanding,” she says.
Robin Campbell was a volunteer firefighter for 10 years in the Annapolis Valley, and is now hoping her research will lead to policy changes that will improve mental health training, awareness and support for volunteer firefighters across the province.
