Back to Research

Back to Research

Back to Research

Why was the study done?

Public Safety Personnel (PSP) are at a high risk of developing mental disorders and face unique barrier to traditional mental health treatments. The PSP Wellbeing Course is an 8-week internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (ICBT) course tailored to assist PSP with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The course has demonstrated success in reducing the impact of mental disorder symptoms, but some clients have reported challenges with learning skills and recommended adding more resources.

What was done in the study?

Mindfulness meditations were added to the course as a complementary resource. Mindfulness meditations help people to experience the world and their reactions to the world in open and nonjudgmental ways. The study was designed to evaluate whether a sample of 40 PSP liked the mindfulness meditations, engaged in the mindfulness meditations, and found the mindfulness meditations to be helpful. We also evaluated whether the use of mindfulness meditations was associated with changes in symptoms.

We added 5 mindfulness meditations to the pre-existing PSP Wellbeing Course. Once clients completed the course, we administered questionnaires and invited them to participate in interviews to learn about their experiences with the course.

What did we find out?

Course findings

• Of the 40 clients who enrolled in the course, 68% reported using the mindfulness meditations.
• Clients who completed the course experienced improvements in self-reported symptoms of anxiety, depression, PTSD, and anger. They also reported improvements in resilience and mindfulness.
• Of the clients who used the mindfulness meditations, 93% said they would recommend them to a friend and 89% said that the mindfulness meditations were worth their time.

What did participants like?

• Participants reported mindfulness meditations:
  • Were beneficial
  • Helped reduce stress and improve relaxation
  • Helped them slow down and regulate their bodies and emotions

What did participants not like?

• Participants reported certain challenges with the mindfulness meditations, including:
  • Feeling uncomfortable sitting with their feelings and emotions
  • Difficulty finding time, motivation, and quiet space
  • Technical issues

What suggestions for improvement were made?

• Providing shorter mindfulness meditations
• Providing videos with the mindfulness meditations
• Providing distinct endpoints at the end of the mindfulness meditations (e.g., a bell chime to indicate when the meditation ends)

Where do we go from here?

• This study builds on prior evidence that ICBT is an effective, acceptable, accessible, and useful treatment for PSP
• This study demonstrates that mindfulness meditations may be a useful addition to ICBT for PSP who are open to practicing mindfulness meditation

Original Story

Web-Based Mindfulness Meditation as an Adjunct to Internet-Delivered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Public Safety Personnel: Mixed Methods Feasibility Evaluation Study. Read Publication here.

Back to Research

Why was the study done?

Public safety personnel (PSP) face high rates of mental health problems including, but not limited to, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (ICBT) shows promising outcomes for improving PSP mental health, but previous research has not yet evaluated PTSD-specific ICBT among Canadian PSP. There was also a need for research comparing PTSD-specific ICBT with ICBT designed to treat symptoms of multiple mental health concerns (known as transdiagnostic ICBT).

What was done in the study?

This study was designed to evaluate two ICBT programs tailored for PSP and offered via PSPNET—the PSP Wellbeing Course and the PSP PTSD Course—among 150 Canadian PSP who reported clinically significant symptoms of PTSD.

Content in the PSP Wellbeing Course focused on symptoms of depression, anxiety, and PTSD, while content in the PSP PTSD Course focused specifically on symptoms of PTSD. Both courses are 8 weeks long and included five lessons with weekly questionnaires, homework assignments, downloadable resources, and illustrative course vignettes. Optional therapist guidance by phone or secure email was also available up to twice a week for up 16 weeks. PSP were free to choose either course.

What did we find out?

Course preference:

• Approximately half the sample selected the PSP Wellbeing Course (57%), and approximately half selected the PSP PTSD Course (43%)
• PSP were more likely to enroll in the PSP Wellbeing Course if they had greater symptoms of depression

Course experience:

• PSP in both courses reported similar and favourable treatment satisfaction (e.g., 98% would recommend the course to a friend), treatment engagement (i.e., 69% access at least four of the five lessons), and feedback

Course effectiveness:

• The PSP Wellbeing Course resulted in greater reductions in panic disorder symptoms than the PSP PTSD Course
• PSP in both courses reported large reductions in depression, generalized anxiety, and PTSD
• PSP in both courses reported moderate reductions in anger
• PSP in both courses reported small reductions in social anxiety

Overall:

• The PSP Wellbeing Course and the PSP PTSD Course showed relatively similar outcomes
• This study builds on growing evidence that transdiagnostic ICBT (e.g., PSP Wellbeing Course) is at least as effective as disorder-specific ICBT (e.g., PSP PTSD Couse) for treating symptoms of various emotional disorders

Where do we go from here?

• This study builds on prior evidence that ICBT is an effective, acceptable, accessible, and useful treatment for PSP
• Future research should identify if and when disorder-specific ICBT is preferable to transdiagnostic ICBT

Original Story

Internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy for symptoms of PTSD among public safety personnel: Initial outcomes of an open cohort preference trial of transdiagnostic and disorder-specific therapy. Read publication here.

Back to Research

Back to Research

Back to Research