The activity of the team of posttraumatic care in the system of psychological service of Fire and Rescue Department of South Bohemia region

The Thesis Activities of a Post-traumatic Care Team in the System of Psychological Services of the Fire and Rescue Brigade of South Bohemia deals with the work of a group of specially trained firemen, who are members of the team. Currently, the team consists of 12 fire-fighters (2 women and 10 men) and one half of them has been working in the team since 2005; the time when the team was established. These fire-fighters have become members of the team voluntarily. I have chosen this topic for my Thesis because it is very topical theme today. Psychological services and hence teams of post-traumatic care help fulfil the basic mission of the Fire and Rescue Brigade of the Czech Republic in the irreplaceable way. Psychological services improve the daily work of fire-fighters and through more comprehensive assistance at emergencies they can also provide quality service to citizens. I can confirm this statement from my own experience because I have been working as a professional fire-fighter for 19 years. I worked as a squad leader for 15 years and I have been working as a member of the team of psychological services for 3 years. The aim of my Thesis was to summarize and evaluate existing experience of my team in the field of providing post-traumatic services for both targeted groups as well as the evaluation of the level of the theoretical knowledge of members of the team. What is more, having the information of the theoretical base of the team and especially knowing the results of the subsequent evaluation of my qualitative research, I wanted to suggest further possibilities for the development of the team, especially in its core activities. Theoretical bases are the standard chapter of the Thesis. I have fulfilled the bases by studying and analyzing the literature dealing with the tasks of the Fire and Rescue Brigade of the Czech Republic, the psychological services and post-traumatic care services. I have also studied the related laws and internal regulations. In accordance with the objectives mentioned above, I have formulated two research questions for my qualitative research, which is the basis of the practical part of my Thesis. Firstly, using the content analysis for the acquired data, I assessed the results of my qualitative research and then, after subsequent comparisons, I created the summaries of the data. For my surveys, I used semi-structured individual interviews, which were focused on experience and attitudes of members of the Team of post-traumatic care of the Fire and Rescue Brigade of South Bohemia Region, who made up my research pool. I have described and discussed the results of my work in detail in three major sections. Two of the sections are dedicated to the core activities of our team, which are: collegial psychological support to the units within our region and post-traumatic care for people affected by emergencies. In the first two sections I bring the meaningful responses to my formulated research questions. The third section is compiled in the spirit of the objectives and it is focused on some proposed changes and possibilities of the development of the team. I put forward the final and complete form of my proposals in the section ?Discussion?. The proposals show (and it is consistent with my belief) that the potential of our team is not fully exploited. Above all, I see this fact as the essential qualitative benefit of my Thesis: mental and intellectual contributions can reveal new facts and perspectives