Post-traumatic stress

Terrorist attacks have a profound and lasting psychological impact on exposed civilians and first responders, particularly on civilians who were directly threatened or have lost loved ones, but also on bystanders and family members.

Our Missions

  • Monitoring the psychological and traumatic impact of terrorist acts

  • Providing useful information to improve care

  • Providing information on psychological trauma, its progression, and its determinants

The ESPOIR Study

The ESPOIR study focuses on the Paris Fire Department. The study, scheduled for 2020, is being conducted jointly by Santé publique France and the Paris Fire Department.

In this article

Background

The attacks that took place in Paris and its suburbs in November 2015 shook the entire nation, leaving several hundred people injured and 130 dead.
In 2016, Santé publique France launched the first phase of the ESPA November 13 survey. A second phase of data collection is expected in 2020.

For its part, the Paris Fire Brigade (BSPP) also implemented, starting in 2015, systematic interviews for its personnel who responded to the events. Indeed, the likelihood that a number of responders would experience temporary or long-term difficulties justified a specific organization of prevention and care measures involving the systematization of support for them.

As the work environment becomes increasingly demanding for firefighters, the need for support grows, and people are gradually speaking out about the repercussions of the November 2015 operations; the BSPP and Santé publique France sought to collaborate to improve the quality of their respective research by implementing a complementary matching of data from the November 13 ESPA surveys regarding Paris firefighters with data collected by the BSPP’s Health and Prevention Office.

Objective

Examining the prevalence and progression of symptoms characteristic of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and assessing the incidence of seeking support and/or treatment will provide a better understanding of the potential repercussions on mental health and allow us to evaluate the effectiveness of the prevention and care program initiated by the Paris Fire Department (BSPP) following the November 2015 attacks. The aim of this study, known as ESPOIR, is to identify vulnerability and protective factors among Paris firefighters exposed to potentially traumatic incidents. This will enable the formulation of recommendations to improve the care provided to firefighters and optimize their training on psychological risks to prevent future incidents of this type.

Methodology

For each respondent who agreed to participate in the ESPA survey and indicated that they belong to the BSPP, the ESPOIR study will be presented to them, and their consent to participate will be obtained.

The data from the ESPOIR study, derived from the merger of data from the ESPA survey and the BSPP’s Health and Prevention Office, will not be identifiable by name, as they will be pseudonymized after matching.

The ESPOIR study has received a favorable opinion from the Committee of Experts for Research, Studies, and Evaluations in the Health Sector (CEREES) and authorization No. 91942 granted by the CNIL on March 31, 2020.

If you have any questions or would like to be kept informed about the progress of the ESPOIR study, you can contact us directly at espa13novembre@santepubliquefrance.fr or protectiondesdonnees@pompiersparis.fr

Text written by Matthieu Petitclerc, Senior Psychologist at the Paris Fire Brigade (BSPP)