Maximizing the Resilience of Healthcare Workers in Multi-hazard Events: Lessons from the 2014-2015 Ebola Response in Africa

Abstract

There is increasing knowledge that health care workers (HCWs) can experience a variety of emotional impacts when responding to disasters and terrorism events. The Anticipate, Plan and Deter (APD) Responder Risk and Resilience Model was developed to provide a new, evidence-informed method for understanding and managing psychological impacts among HCWs. APD includes pre-deployment development of an individualized resilience plan and an in-theater, real-time self-triage system, which together allow HCWs to assess and manage the full range of psychological risk and resilience for themselves and their families. The inclusion of objective mental health risk factors to prompt activation of a coping plan, in connection with unit leadership real-time situational awareness, enables the first known evidence-driven "targeted action" plan to address responder risk early before Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and impairment become established. This paper describes pilot work using the self-triage system component in Alameda County's Urban Shield and the Philippines' Typhoon Haiyan, and then reports a case example of the full APD model implementation in West Africa's Ebola epidemic.

Keywords: Disasters; Mental Health; PTSD; responders.