How Do Relationships Factor Into Psychological Wellness for 911 Telecommunicators?
Written by Lisa Rymshaw, published January 19, 2022
During my very first year as a 911 telecommunicator in a beachside South Florida town, my assistant police chief told me that she saw me as a person who could be involved in creating positive growth and education in the 911 community. I did not know what that meant at the time. But somehow, it resonated with me.
A few years later, I relocated to Pennsylvania for a while. It was during my time dispatching in a PA comm center that I realized exactly what I needed to do. While I was still passionate about my work, unfortunately, I was employed in a toxic PSAP environment. But the upside was that it propelled me to go back to school - and earn my doctorate degree! In every class, I purposefully wrote my research papers on topics relevant to public safety.
For my final doctoral research project, I focused on the psychological wellbeing of 911 telecommunicators. I asked them about their greatest stressors, as well as their ideas for improving psychological well-being, both on and off the job. Fortunately for me, dispatchers love to talk! The insights and ideas that I received were eye-opening, and I was excited for the opportunity to present them at the 2021 Society for Police and Criminal Psychology Conference this year. The part of the results that I’d like to share with you today involve romantic relationship status and family status. I found it interesting to discover that certain aspects of these two factors affected 911 telecommunicators’ perceptions of what are the most stressful aspects of the job, as well as the solutions they proposed for wellness.
All of the participants in my study were required to answer 911 calls as well as operate the radio as part of their regular job description, and they had to be in the field for at least one year (to be sure they were out of their training period and working on their own). A total of 142 telecommunicators were eligible to participate. The categories for romantic relationships included the following: Not in a Serious Relationship; Live Separate from Partner; Live with Partner; or Other. Out of the 142 telecommunicators, 61% lived with their partners. Yet out of each of these categories, the only telecommunicators who showed any strong similarities among the responses for stressors or suggestions were those who lived separately from their partners.
Telecommunicators in this group were much more likely to be highly stressed during radio traffic in which a field responder was in a life-threatening situation. Another interesting discovery was that telecommunicators who lived separately from their partners were also much more likely to be stressed by lack of support from co-workers, or having a manager that was out of touch with the demands of the job, than telecommunicators with any of the other relationship statuses.
Along these lines, telecommunicators who lived separately from their partners were much more likely to provide suggestions for creating a team culture among their co-workers, as well as suggestions for creating a culture of respect between themselves and their supervisors, than participants in other types of relationships. Considering the long hours and mandatory overtime required of 911 telecommunicators, coupled with the fact that those who live separately from their partners do not get to see them at home once they finish their shifts - to vent, to be hugged, or to otherwise spend time deescalating with them in person - it makes sense that these telecommunicators may feel a stronger need for two-way communication in general, which may spill over into their job perspective.
Out of the 142 telecommunicators who took the survey, 70% had children (of any age). Participants who reported having children were much more likely to find 911 calls involving suffering to be highly stressful than those who did not have children. This was particularly true when the calls involved children who were actively suffering, or calls reporting that a child had already been abused or suffering in some other manner. Telecommunicators with children also expressed a higher level of stress due to issues related to reduced time off, as well as a variety of issues related to the effects of the job on personal relationships, than those without children. In comparison, telecommunicators who had no children expressed a higher level of stress than those with children for any issues related to lack of personal time.
This research has brought to light that while there are definitely some common heavy stressors in the role of an emergency telecommunicator, the weight of these stressors may vary, depending on the types of relationships that are most prominent in our personal lives. My ultimate goal is that in giving a voice to 911 telecommunicators’ opinions, concerns, and experiences, I can help to shed light on the types of support that are needed the most - and the policy changes and programs that need to be created and put into motion. Gradually, through APCO and through other blogs and magazines, I plan to reveal more of the results from this study. If you would like to follow my progress, please join me on LinkedIn.
Thank you, Lisa for sharing your knowledge with us. If you are interested in writing a blog, please email 911derWomen@gmail.com. Sign up for our newsletter on our homepage to stay up to date with 911der Women programming, exclusive content and blog updates. Click here and scroll to the bottom.