Abstract

It is our responsibility to protect and look after the health of members of the emergency services as this directly impacts on the country’s readiness to respond to these disasters and is a critical part of our duty of care towards this important group of workers. This study examined the mental health outcomes and associations with individual and job characteristics among emergency services personnel compared to a random sample of working people, thereby using data from the UK Biobank. This data source contains data on over half a million adults in the UK, who were at the time of recruitment between 40–69 years. Over 2 80 000 reported being in work. Current emergency services personnel were identified based on Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) 2000 codes. A random sample of age and sex matched people working in other occupations were selected from the UK Biobank for comparative purposes. The prevalence of the outcomes of interest, based on current and life time measures of depression, anxiety, alcohol misuse, post-traumatic stress disorder, suicide and trauma will be presented. The findings will be discussed in the light of current policies and strategies and recommendations for further practice will be outlined.