Clinical trial NCT04929613: Resilience Training for First Responders in the Opioid Epidemic
Official title: Intensive Mindfulness-based Resilience Training in First Responders: A Pilot Study
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Compassion Fatigue
Burnout
Stress
Mindfulness
Keywords: First Responders
Lead sponsor: West Virginia University
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2021-06-18
Enrollment: 30
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: NA
Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose: SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Brief summary: First responders (law enforcement, firefighters, and emergency medical system personnel) are subjected to daily pressures from their duties with resultant compassion fatigue, burnout, anger, poor mental and physical health, maladaptive behavior, and sleep disturbance. The unprecedented heroin and opioid epidemic in West Virginia has accelerated the stresses as these first responders witness overdoses and overdose death on a frequent basis. The plight and suffering of children of the overdose victims is an additional overlooked element in the stress on the first responder community. The proposed project will deliver mindfulness-based resilience training to improve the mental and physical wellbeing, prevent compassion fatigue, burnout, and attrition of first responders and performance improvement by reducing predictable cognitive errors in the Charleston and Huntington areas and measure the effects of this training on this population using validated questionnaires and salivary cortisol before and after the training.

Detailed description: West Virginia (WV) is in the midst of an unprecedented opioid and heroin epidemic with profound social, health, and economic consequences. This stress, especially among law enforcement officials (LEOs), is often experienced within a context of excessive anger, which decreases wellbeing and has the potential to negatively impact public wellbeing as well. These public safety personnel are often left to manage stress and anger in a cultural context that does not support help-seeking behavior and that encourages maladaptive coping mechanisms. Mindfulness-Based Resilience Training (MBRT) has demonstrated significant improvement in self-reported mindfulness, resilience, perceived operational and administrative stress, burnout, emotional intelligence, emotion regulation, mental and physical health, anger, fatigue, and sleep disturbance Introducing effective evidence-based training to first responders has the potential to improve well-being and decrease burnout and improve the performance of the people who protect the community. Should this hypotheses be confirmed, first responders in West Virginia will have an effective intervention to improve resilience, address perceived stress and burnout, and lead to greater mental and physical wellbeing in the face of unprecedented stresses associated with the opioid and heroin epidemic. This would enable this intervention to be scaled across the state among other populations of first responders in this unprecedented public health crisis.

First responders will be recruited from volunteers targeting leadership and thought leaders at the frontline from the three-county area, but primarily from the cities of Charleston and Huntington, to participate in one of two 2.5-day intensive MBRT training sessions. Each 2.5-day session will be coordinated with each agency to ensure maximum participation without disrupting work schedules. Up to 35 participants will participate in each cohort. This study aims to recruit 2 cohorts from the pool of first responders in the Cabell, Kanawha, and Putnam Counties area for a minimum of 50 participants and maximum of 70 participants. Self report measures will be conducted at time 0 (before the intervention), time 1 (after the 2.5-day intensive training), time 2 (4 weeks after the 2.5-day intensive training and after the week 4 remote/virtual booster training) and at time 3 (90 days after the initial intensive training).

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Current employment as a first responder
* West Virginia residency
* Availability/willingness to engage in a 2.5-day retreat style intervention on identified dates.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Not an actively employed first responder
* Does not currently reside in WV
* Not willing or able to participate

Primary outcomes:
measure: Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ)
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ)
timeFrame: Immediately following intervention
measure: Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ)
timeFrame: 30 days post intervention
measure: Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ)
timeFrame: 90 days post intervention
measure: Mindfulness Process Questionnaire (MPQ)
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: Mindfulness Process Questionnaire (MPQ)
timeFrame: Immediately following intervention
measure: Mindfulness Process Questionnaire (MPQ)
timeFrame: 30 days post intervention
measure: Mindfulness Process Questionnaire (MPQ)
timeFrame: 90 days post intervention
measure: Organizational Police Stress Questionnaire
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: Organizational Police Stress Questionnaire
timeFrame: Immediately following intervention
measure: Organizational Police Stress Questionnaire
timeFrame: 30 days post intervention
measure: Organizational Police Stress Questionnaire
timeFrame: 90 days post intervention
measure: Operational Police Stress Questionnaire
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: Operational Police Stress Questionnaire
timeFrame: Immediately following intervention
measure: Operational Police Stress Questionnaire
timeFrame: 30 days post intervention
measure: Operational Police Stress Questionnaire
timeFrame: 90 days post intervention
measure: Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)
timeFrame: Immediately following intervention
measure: Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)
timeFrame: 30 days post intervention
measure: Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)
timeFrame: 90 days post intervention
measure: Emotional Regulation
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: Emotional Regulation
timeFrame: Immediately following intervention
measure: Emotional Regulation
timeFrame: 30 days post intervention
measure: Emotional Regulation
timeFrame: 90 days post intervention
measure: Emotional Intelligence Scale
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: Emotional Intelligence Scale
timeFrame: Immediately following intervention
measure: Emotional Intelligence Scale
timeFrame: 30 day post intervention
measure: Emotional Intelligence Scale
timeFrame: 90 days
measure: Brief Resilience Scale
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: Brief Resilience Scale
timeFrame: Immediately following intervention
measure: Brief Resilience Scale
timeFrame: 30 days post intervention
measure: Brief Resilience Scale
timeFrame: 90 days post intervention
measure: General Family Functioning
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: General Family Functioning
timeFrame: Immediately following intervention
measure: General Family Functioning
timeFrame: 30 days post intervention
measure: General Family Functioning
timeFrame: 90 days post intervention
measure: PROMIS Sleep
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: PROMIS Sleep
timeFrame: Immediately following intervention
measure: PROMIS Sleep
timeFrame: 30 days post intervention
measure: PROMIS Sleep
timeFrame: 90 days post intervention
measure: PROMIS Health
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: PROMIS Health
timeFrame: Immediately following intervention
measure: PROMIS Health
timeFrame: 30 days post intervention
measure: PROMIS Health
timeFrame: 90 days post intervention
measure: PROMIS Fatigue
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: PROMIS Fatigue
timeFrame: Immediately following intervention
measure: PROMIS Fatigue
timeFrame: 30 days post intervention
measure: PROMIS Fatigue
timeFrame: 90 days post intervention
measure: PROMIS Anger
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: PROMIS Anger
timeFrame: Immediately following intervention
measure: PROMIS Anger
timeFrame: 30 days post intervention
measure: PROMIS Anger
timeFrame: 90 days post intervention
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Charleston
country: United States
facility: Kanawha-Charleston Health Department
state: West Virginia
city: Charleston
country: United States
facility: Saint John XXIII Pastoral Center
state: West Virginia
city: Huntington
country: United States
facility: Marshall University
state: West Virginia
city: Morgantown
country: United States
facility: West Virginia University
state: West Virginia
Study officials:
affiliation: West Virginia University
name: Keith Zullig, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: