# Mental health & resilience in crews of emergency medical service helicopters - load analysis of stressful missions

## TL;DR

This study explores the mental health and resilience of helicopter emergency medical service crews, focusing on their experiences with stressful missions and limited use of psychosocial support.

## Contribution

The study provides new insights into the underutilization of psychosocial services by RTH crews despite frequent exposure to stressful missions.

## Key findings

- Only 4 contacts for psychosocial support were recorded among 1383 analyzed missions.
- Crews appear to rely on internal resources like teamwork and debriefing rather than external support.
- Further qualitative research is needed to better understand crew resilience and mental health.

## Abstract

Crews of rescue transport helicopters (RTH) are repeatedly confronted with difficult missions and operational scenarios. When dealing with and processing difficult missions in particular, PSNV services (PSNV – psychosocial emergency care) are rarely taken up. Even actively offered assistance is usually declined, regardless of who makes the offer. To investigate the number of potential stressful missions, e.g. pediatric patients with NACA-score 5-7, suicide or suicide attempts, second victim aspect or critical incidents, and the use of PSNV at the DRF Luftrettung were analzyed using systematically generated data over a two-year-period. 1383 missions were extracted from the data. Overall, 4 contacts of reaching out for help and support could be identified. Corresponding to the literature, the data suggests that crews do not feel the need to be supported to overcome difficult missions despite the debriefing in the crew. It leads to the assumption that the feeling of safety, respect and teamwork provides a great resource in dealing with burdensome missions. But it must also be discussed that maybe there exists a number of unrecorded cases. For that, further research in qualitative design of resources and challenges for the resilience and mental health of the crews of emergency medical service helicopters is needed to get better understanding of the phenomenon and support the emergency-personnel’s well-being and human performance.