Abstract

Musculoskeletal disorders and physical and psychosocial stress are present in Québec 9-1-1 emergency call dispatchers. Evidence of these disorders has been highlighted by a study conducted by scientists at the Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST) and the Université Laval, in collaboration with the personnel of five 9-1-1 emergency centres and the Association paritaire pour la santé et la sécurité du travail du secteur affaires municipales (APSAM, joint sectoral occupational health and safety association, municipal affairs sector).
In fact, at the time of the study, 96% of the 9-1-1 emergency centre dispatchers reported having felt significant musculoskeletal pain in at least one body region in the previous year. In addition, half of the personnel in these centres present a high level of psychological distress. Although less prevalent, these phenomena were also confirmed in the personnel of different help-line, hotline support and telemarketing service call centres, whose number has been increasing over the last few years. Since no study has yet measured the scope of these problems in emergency call centres, the IRSST report sheds light for the first time on this phenomenon.
The authors describe the specific characteristics of the work of 9-1-1 call dispatchers, and the prevalence of MSD and psychological health symptoms and physical and psychosocial risk factors. Besides proposing orientations for intervention, the researchers document the relationships between these risk factors and MSD and psychological health symptoms.
In a second phase, they want to identify the aspects that promote or hinder the control of postural, cognitive, emotional and social requirements likely to constitute protection factors or risk factors. They want to describe the prevention management context in the 9-1-1 emergency centres participating in the research project and the aspects facilitating the implementation of an action plan intended to reduce the prevalence of physical and psychosocial risk factors and MSD and psychological health symptoms in these centres.