Psychoeducational intervention to prevent critical incident stress among disaster volunteers

Objective: Citizens participating in relief activities in disaster areas can be greatly affected by critical incident stress (CIS). The present study examined the efficacy of pre-departure psychoeducational intervention (PEI) on alleviating CIS. Method: Participants in disaster volunteer dispatch organizations were divided into 2 groups: those who had received pre-departure PEI for alleviating CIS, including information on specific symptoms of CIS, coping strategies, and consultation services, and those who had not received such intervention. We subsequently evaluated the between-group differences among the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) scores. Results: The average IES-R score of the PEI group was significantly lower than that of the no-PEI group (3.5 vs. 4.8, P = 0.02). Even after controlling for elapsed time since their most recent participation in volunteer activity, the PEI-group score was significantly lower than that of the no- PEI group (3.8 vs. 5.1, P = 0.02). Conclusions: These findings indicate that receiving pre-departure PEI for CIS was significantly related to alleviating CIS after participation in volunteer activities. With the increased numbers of disaster volunteers, comes an increased need for providing PEI.