Project 466079

There is an urgent need to create and apply targeted interventions for at-risk public safety personnel (PSP) to address the increased prevalence of post-traumatic stress and suicidal behaviours among this population. Social support, including peer support and caring contacts, has been shown to reduce risks of suicide and post-traumatic stress injuries (PTSI) among PSP. Caring contacts involves follow up communication with high risk groups at high risk times, offering encouragement, fostering human connection, instilling hope and providing resources. Peer support has been shown to increase social support among high risk populations who may be less likely to access mental health support due to stigma. More research is required to understand how caring contacts and peer support can be used to better support PSP who call crisis lines. Crisis lines in Canada currently do not incorporate peer support or caring contacts. Integrating these interventions may be beneficial for supporting PSP and may potentially prevent PTSI and suicide. The proposed project examines a novel integrated peer support and caring contact intervention (Caring Contact-Peer Intervention; CC-PI) for PSP who contact the Canada Suicide Prevention Service (CSPS). This pilot study will examine the feasibility of the CC-P and its acceptability for PSP in crisis and the trained PSP peers providing support. PSP peers will undergo a specialized crisis line volunteer training. Project outcomes include whether CC-PI implementation is feasible and illumination of the experiences of PSP and PSP peers with the intervention and their perception of its impact. If successful, this project will produce a scalable and cost-effective way to prevent post-traumatic stress injury and suicide in high risk PSP by providing tailored support by peers for diverse groups of PSP. It will also make CSPS more meaningful and relevant for PSP, and provide data to improve future training of peers and iterations of the CC-PI.