From Stress to Strength
Investigating Mental Health in Humanitarian Aid and High-Risk Occupations
International humanitarian aid workers (iHAW) are often exposed to high levels of stress and potentially traumatic situations, which can affect their mental health and well-being. With her PhD research, Saara Martinmäki aims to understand these effects better and explore strategies to reduce and prevent work-related stress among iHAWs.
Martinmäki examined the mental health of iHAWs before, immediately after and two months after their aid deployment. Although most aid workers' mental health remained stable, some of them showed worsened symptoms over time. Her findings suggest that factors such as a strong sense of coherence (SOC), and the ability to understand and manage life's challenges, are protective. At the same time, longer assignments and female gender were linked to a greater risk of worsening symptoms of common mental health problems.
She also examined different types of stressors faced by iHAWs. Martinmäki: ‘Organisational stressors, such as high workloads, unclear communication or conflicts within the team, and general harassment were found to have a stronger relationship with mental health and work-related well-being than exposure to potentially traumatic events. Sexual harassment also contributed significantly to negative mental health outcomes, especially among female iHAWs.’ She found that when aid workers are exposed to multiple types of stressors, they have an additive effect, with each additional stressor further straining their mental health.
Finally, Martinmäki studied the treatment of work-related trauma in another high-risk group: police officers. She found that intensified trauma-focused treatment was effective for many police officers with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who previously did not respond to treatment. However, involvement in compensation procedures was associated with poorer treatment outcomes.
Martinmäki's PhD research offers practical and policy-oriented recommendations for humanitarian organisations to improve and protect the mental health of their employees.
