JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Public safety personnel are exposed to traumatic events due to their work environments, which increases the risk of mental health issues and challenges. Providing effective and economic evidence-based interventions, such as the Text4PTSI program, has the prospect of improving public safety personnel's overall mental well-being with high user satisfaction rates.

Objective:

This study aims to evaluate users' satisfaction, receptiveness, and perceptions of a CBT-based supportive text messaging intervention (Text4PTSI).

Methods:

Participants self-subscribed to Text4PTSI and received unidirectional cognitive behavioural-based supportive text messages for six months. Participants completed an online survey delivered via text message at six weeks, three months, and six months post-enrolment. Data were collected as categorical variables, and overall satisfaction with the Text4PTSI program was measured on a scale from 0-100.

Results:

There were 131 subscribers to the Text4PTSI program, and 100 completed satisfaction survey responses were generated from 81 subscribers across the three follow-up time points. The overall mean score of satisfaction was 85.12 (SD 13.3). More than half of the survey responses agreed/strongly agreed that Text4PTSI helped participants cope with anxiety (79/100 responses, 79%), depressive symptoms (72/100 responses, 72%) and loneliness (54/100 responses, 54%). Similarly, most of the survey responses agreed/strongly agreed the Text4PTSI program made participants feel connected to a support system and improved their overall mental well-being (84/100 responses, 84.0%), felt more hopeful about managing concerns about their mental health or substance use (82/100 responses, 82.0%), and helped enhance their overall quality of life (77/100 responses, 77.0%). The responses suggest that most participants always read the supportive text messages (84/100 responses, 84.0%) and taken time to reflect on each message (75 responses/100, 75.0%), while some participants (76/100 responses, 76.0%) also reported returning to read the text messages more than once.

Conclusions:

Public safety personnel reported high user satisfaction and appreciation for receiving Text4PTSI intervention during the six-month program. Supportive text messages are effective and economical, can provide evidence-based psychological support to at-risk individuals, and have the prospect of closing the psychological treatment gap for public safety personnel globally, particularly when in-person support is unavailable.