TRauma Awareness For FIrst Responders Erasmus Project

Project Title

TRauma Awareness For FIrst Responders

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

TRauma Awareness For FIrst Responders (TRAFFIR) – addressing identified skills gaps in critical incident stress and trauma intervention.

Aims:
To develop a whole systems approach to improve key competences in dealing with emergency first response situations in order to mitigate the impact of repeated or singular exposure to a critical stress incident.

Objectives:
By the end of the project we will have created the TRAFFIR Train the Trainers Programme toolkit resource that will contribute to the development of a European Area of Skills and Qualifications by preparing, implementing, evaluating and reviewing 6 modules of learning that the partnership feels best suited to addressing psychological first aid needs and trauma intervention identified in 6 separate European Comparison Analyses.

Context/Background:
Research (Everly, Flannery, & Mitchell, in press; Flannery, 1998; Everly & Mitchell, 1997) has shown that any form of crisis (trauma) incident stress management requires a suite of intervention tools in order to minimise the risk of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) amongst first responders. Whilst this research is 20 years old, there is still no whole systems’ provision for educators in this field.

Many first aiders in schools, colleges, community centres and emergency service workers do not have training or qualifications that match a job role in being the first responder at a critical stress/traumatic incident. Certainly police and fire officers are repeatedly exposed to traumatic incidents rather than carrying out their prime function (combating crime/putting out fires). This has led to rising levels of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and depression that often results in attempted suicide (for example, in the UK 1 in 4 have thought about it).

TRAFFIR will address gaps in trauma interventions with a robustly evaluated development of a training programme flexible enough to be delivered in 5 different countries with learning outcomes and mapped to the descriptors of level 3 European Qualifications Framework (EQF) for other organisations in other countries to adapt for local use.

Six participants:
PADM (UK): Plymouth And District Mind Mental Health Charity’s Plymouth Recovery College and Training Division working with the Blue Light Services in the South West of England
KWC (UK): Kilcooley Women’s Centre – working with 14 communities in Bangor region of Northern Ireland
IRIS (Po): Fundacja Instytut Re-Integracji Społecznej – provide first aid courses schools and works closely with the Police Department in Lodz, Poland
BUCOVINA (Ro): experienced psychotherapists but no first responder training as none exists in Romania
DOMSpain (Spain): training and consulting organisation that works closely with the Police and Fire Departments in Reus and province of Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain
NIKANOR ltd (Bg): Educational Centre works with volunteers training them how to act in critical situations. However, there is no training system on TRAFFIR issues in Bulgaria

Activities:
Two attendees from each partner will participate in 6 transnational meetings with a purpose to plan, implement pilot delivery, evaluate and review a fit for purpose the TRAFFIR toolkit; each partner will host a learning/transnational meeting and also send 4 staff to a short term staff training event to pilot the toolkit then cascade to others upon their return to their own organisation.

Methodology:
Four phases in line with EQAVET guidelines: preparation, implementation, evaluation and review. Each partner will form local stakeholder committees recruiting 4 other stakeholders. The Plymouth Development Tool for Vocational Training (PTDVT) will underpin a comprehensive framework for the planning, implementation, review and response for new vocational training programmes, and create a review framework in order to evaluate the project as a whole and the training programme in particular. Initially, partners will research the extent of the lack of training in this field and conduct direct needs analyses with emergency first responders and those who may become a first responder to a traumatic incident as a consequence of their working role.

Results:
Partners have identified six key workshops, that combined, will create a systems approach to address current skills gaps. We will work with stakeholders to populate the modules with appropriate content and learning outcomes. The final training programme will be cascaded locally with learning outcomes mapped to EQF level 3 descriptors.

IMPACT: the development of on-line training programme to address skills gaps which will be freely available to the sector in partner languages. TRAFFIR will be presented to 240 attendees at 6 local multiplier event conferences and made available on the project web site.

Longer term benefits:
Long term, the outputs of the project will become embedded in the daily practices of each project partner organisation as part of their training curriculum.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 207291 Eur

Project Coordinator

Devon Mind & Country: UK

Project Partners

• NIKANOR LTD
• Fundacja Instytut Re-Integracji Spolecznej
• Asociatia Institutul pentru Parteneriat Social Bucovina
• DOMSPAIN SLU
• KILCOOLEY WOMENS CENTRE