Emergency medical services (EMS) clinicians' views on EMS-delivered interventions to promote secure firearm storage practices.

INTRODUCTION: Lethal means safety counseling (LMSC) to promote secure firearm storage may reduce the risk of firearm-involved deaths, including suicide. We examined if emergency medical services (EMS) clinicians, including emergency medical technicians and paramedics, may be suitable LMSC messengers. METHOD: We conducted a web-based survey of 229 US EMS clinicians. RESULTS: While few EMS clinicians supported EMS-delivered LMSC to all patients (17.0%), most supported EMS-delivered LMSC to patients in an acute suicidal crisis (64.2%) or with a known suicide attempt history (55.9%). Barriers to EMS-delivered LMSC included lack of training (73.4%), perceptions that LMSC is outside EMS clinicians' scope of practice (58.1%), and lack of standard operating procedures (56.3%). Most reported at least some interest in receiving training on EMS-delivered LMSC (67.7%). Participants holding more accurate beliefs about the link between firearm storage practices and suicide risk, as well as the efficacy of LMSC, were more likely to support EMS-delivered LMSC across patient scenarios (ORs = 2.18-5.21, ps <0.01) and express interest in receiving LMSC training (ORs = 3.78-5.43, ps <0.001). CONCLUSION: Given that many EMS clinicians interface with patients at elevated suicide risk, targeted LMSC training may be strategic; however, research is needed to determine if and how EMS clinicians might be viable LMSC messengers.

Resilience and attitudes toward help-seeking as correlates of psychological well-being among a sample of New Zealand Defence Force personnel.

Research is needed to examine factors that contribute to psychological well-being among military service members. This study examined associations between various indices of psychological well-being, resilience, and help-seeking stigma among New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel (N = 2,805). Participants completed self-report measures of psychological well-being, resilience, help-seeking stigma, and past-year help-seeking behaviors. Greater resilience and a lower degree of help-seeking stigma were each significantly associated with better psychological well-being (i.e., greater psychological flourishing, less psychological distress, and better overall mental health). Though effects were relatively small, engagement in help-seeking behaviors moderated the relationship between (1) greater resilience and less psychological distress and (2) greater resilience and better overall mental health, such that these relationships were stronger among those who had sought help for their mental health in the past year. Findings suggest that greater resilience and less mental health help-seeking stigma may independently contribute to better psychological well-being among NZDF personnel; thus, enhancing resilience and reducing help-seeking stigma may serve to promote psychological well-being in this population. Improving resilience among NZDF personnel who seek help, in particular, may contribute to better psychological well-being. However, longitudinal research among service members is needed to establish a temporal relationship between these constructs.