Grant: Catalyst Grant: PTSI among PSP workers

Public Safety Personnel (PSP) members and leadership are faced with increasingly challenging decisions when trying to better support mental health. Prevention, intervention, and treatment options for mental health injuries for PSP are proliferating; unfortunately, there is considerable confusion and debate about such options because of the limited available research, much of which is insufficiently accessible to non-academics. PSP members and leaders increasingly report being bombarded with requests for research participation, offers of treatments or training programs, and requests to comment on or make decisions regarding established and novel interventions to support PSP mental health. The proposed project will design a training program tailored to provide PSP with skills to access, assess, interpret, and evaluate health research. The program will also provide PSP with skills to maximize their effectiveness when engaging with researchers and practitioners. The training will be developed collaboratively with PSP, academics, and clinicians, who will work together to build an economically, logistically, and geographically accessible online training program that provides training in diverse research skills. The training will be pilot tested by a sample of 30 PSP leaders who will be tested on their critical appraisal skills and comprehension of fundamental research concepts before and after the training, and invited to provide feedback for ongoing improvements to the program. The resulting program is expected to help better equip PSP to engage with all aspects of mental health research and practice; will support their efforts to implement evidence-based prevention, intervention, and treatment programs; and will enable mobilization of research to increase evidence-based mental health awareness, reduce stigma, and increase mental health literacy. The increased capacity will accelerate progress towards building better health solutions specific to the unique needs of PSP.