We’re just taking phone calls. It’s not like we’re in the field seeing it all. So why do we let it bother us? This common misperception about what we 911 dispatchers do and experience has led many people to believe we sit in a building far removed from the sights, smells and tactile events of those in the field. So, we have no reason to experience stress or psychological trauma injuries. Correct?
Far from it. The research reveals just the opposite and emphasizes that telecommunicators are at equal or greater risk for PTSD than firefighters and police officers. Misconceptions not only lead dispatchers to feel as though their experiences are invalid or not real but can also cause them to think their mental and emotional health needs are not important.
Four factors are associated with stress: novelty, predictability, control and evaluation. Stress increases when someone deals with a new event or stimulus, amplified by low predictability, heightened by minimal control of the event, and further exacerbated by constant social evaluation.
According to Dr. Michelle Lily's research, “These four factors maintain a consistent presence in the 911 environment … when you add shift work schedules, mandatory overtime and persistent understaffing, 911 communication centers can become highly stressed work environments.”
Research has shown that between 18% and 25% of 911 telecommunicators met the criteria for probable PTSD. This is a rate that is five to six times greater than the general population, two to four times greater than a sample of firefighters, and exceeds the rate found in police officers.
What do dispatchers actually experience when they are taking calls?
The first point of contact with 911 during a true emergency is when the situation is at its height. People call 911 screaming, wailing, moaning and sobbing, often incomprehensible. And it is up to the dispatcher to determine what is happening and assess what is needed based on each scenario. Due to the frequently chaotic nature of a true emergency call, it’s difficult to hear through the shouts, screams and crying what is happening with enough clarity to make the decision about how to help.
The dispatcher often takes the first step to manage a critical incident by attempting to calm the situation to a manageable state before the field units arrive on scene, thus reducing the chaos.
This is not intended to diminish what firefighters and EMS face when they arrive on a call. There is often still a high level of chaos, noise, screaming and crying, increasing the need for accurate and helpful information from dispatch. Firefighters and EMS must be confident that those who send them to these scenes have ensured they are safe to enter. Should they find themselves in danger, they need to know that their dispatchers will have their backs. This, of course, adds to dispatchers’ stress.
Field responders often experience a resolution, whether it’s positive or negative. However, because they are removed from the scene, many dispatchers never hear the end of the stories that begin so terrifyingly in their ears. They hear only those initial sounds of pain, anger, grief and fear, and never hear the sounds of relief, trust, hope or gratitude.
Human brains strongly desire a beginning, a middle and an end to fully process stress. When that end isn’t provided, our brains ruminate, replaying the situation over and over again like a broken record. Psychological trauma occurs because there is no way to close the stress cycle loop.
Though exposed to the trauma in a different way, those in the field share the experience with their dispatchers – something that is often forgotten. It is important to remember that we are all a part of the story of every call received and responded to. And it is important that we take the steps to seek each other out to share that experience. This goes a long way not only to further the understanding of each other’s jobs, but also to create connection and community at a depth that cannot be known outside of this environment.
Humans have incredible imaginations – but dispatchers often find theirs work against them, picturing the pain, grief, gore, death and life-altering injuries that exist on scene and in the caller’s future. It doesn’t matter if we later discover that the situation was far more innocuous than it seemed – the images and emotions have already been created and the stress injury has occurred.
In a study that examined the potential consequences and benefits of NG911 video technology, the research showed that those “who listened to a story had stronger physiological reactions than participants who watched videos of the same story … which may indicate a greater sense of threat to listeners than viewers.”
Those involved in the study were exposed for only short durations, so the findings would be increased exponentially for any 911 telecommunicator. Their typical 12-hour shift has an estimated 10.5 hours of listening to 40 to 120 calls with only a six second resting period between them – some or most of that time could be intense or distressing. Therefore, by extension, prolonged exposure to distressing audio calls might lead to dysregulation and increasing the likelihood for stress-related disorders.
We have the science, the shared experiences and challenges, so what now? Can we break down the invisible wall that keeps dispatch and their field responders from recognizing that we are all on the same team, and no one fights alone, regardless of what side of the radio you are on?
