Public safety salute: An ongoing surveillance and knowledge mobilization plan to support the needs of Canadian Public Safety Personnel impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic

With the responsibility for the safety of our population, public safety personnel have been at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic, facing stressful and potentially traumatic situations, such as exposure to the coronavirus and a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE). Here, public safety personnel are at an elevated risk for a host of negative psychological impacts, such as anxiety, depression, PTSD, moral distress, and moral injury. Indeed, since the beginning of the pandemic in December of 2019, global research highlights the deleterious mental health impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic has had, and continues to have, on individuals in public service roles. Our targeted objectives are three-fold and include efforts to: i) understand the unique lived experiences and psychological impacts among Canadian HCPs resulting from their work during the COVID-19 pandemic through a national sample of multidisciplinary HCPs; ii) Identify risk and resiliency factors for psychological injury, the development of moral injury, and decreased functioning through a national sample of PSPs; iii) create knowledge translation and knowledge mobilization resources to support these workers.