Volunteer firefighters report elevated psychiatric symptoms compared to career firefighters, and greater structural barriers to mental health treatment may explain this link, according to a recent study. Researchers aimed to (1) describe differences in psychiatric symptoms and barriers to mental health care between US firefighters in volunteer-only and career-only departments; and (2) determine if greater self-reported structural barriers to mental health care explain the differences in psychiatric symptom levels. Overall, 525 current US firefighters participated (n=204 volunteer, n=321 career firefighters). They found:

• Volunteer firefighters reported significantly elevated levels of depression, posttraumatic stress, and suicidal symptoms compared to career firefighters.
• Career firefighters reported relatively elevated levels of problematic alcohol use.
• Volunteer firefighters additionally reported greater structural barriers to mental health care (eg, cost, availability of resources), and these barriers accounted for the differences in mental health variables between volunteer and career firefighters.