Measuring and Addressing Collegiate EMTs' Preparedness for Mental Health Emergency Responses

Measuring and Addressing Collegiate EMTs' Preparedness for Mental Health Emergency Responses

Presenter(s)

Spencer J. Hawkins, Allison Marie Johnson

Comments

Presentation: 9:40-10:00, Kennedy Union 312

Description

The COVID-19 Pandemic highlighted the increasing mental health burden felt by graduate and undergraduate students in the United States. A study from 2020 showed that 35% of undergraduate students screen positive for major depressive disorder, while 39% screen positive for general anxiety disorder (Chrikov et al., 2020). Previous research has supported the claim that collegiate EMS programs are especially effective at responding to mental health emergencies on college campuses (Friedman, 2022). UD EMS utilized multiple established questionnaires and surveys to gain insight into the preparedness of members to respond to various emergencies. The "perceived ability to attend to various patient presentations survey", adapted from Waltrich et al. (2022), allowed measurement of the perceived knowledge, ability, and confidence of UD EMS members when responding to medical-related calls, trauma calls, and mental health-related calls. Day's Mental Illness Stigma Scale (Day et al., 2007) allowed the measurement of mental health stigma across seven different measurements. 39 UD EMS EMTs completed these measurements before and after a mental health training program to determine how the training would affect attitudes. Data from before the training indicated that the EMTs possessed more perceived knowledge, ability, and confidence when responding to medical and trauma calls than mental health-related calls. After the training, the EMT's perceived knowledge, ability, and confidence related to medical and trauma calls did not change but perceived knowledge and ability to treat mental-health-related calls matched medical and trauma scores. Additionally, the measurement of Day's Mental Illness Stigma Scale showed that mental health stigma decreased across four of seven measures in the EMTs and increased in no way. While confidence in mental health-related calls was unaffected, additional mental health response training for collegiate EMTs shows promise to increase effective mental health emergency responses on college campuses.

Publication Date

4-17-2024

Project Designation

Independent Research

Primary Advisor

Jackson A. Goodnight

Primary Advisor's Department

Psychology

Keywords

Stander Symposium, College of Arts and Sciences

Institutional Learning Goals

Practical Wisdom; Scholarship

Measuring and Addressing Collegiate EMTs' Preparedness for Mental Health Emergency Responses

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