Supporting mental health for communicators during a crisis – Q&A with J. Suzanne Horsley

Hidden among the alerts, headlines and warnings during a crisis, an often-overlooked challenge confronts communicators. Busy addressing safety concerns and getting out important information, their mental health becomes less of a priority. That affects messaging, which can ultimately distress intended audiences. Three-time Page Center scholar J. Suzanne Horsley and first-time scholar Daphne Cain, University of Alabama, are leading an interdisciplinary study based on organizational theory and psychological first-aid. Their project is part of the Page Center’s 2024 research call on expanding theory for integrity in public communication. In this Q&A, Horsley talks about the need for mental health support, how theory will lead to practical guidelines for communicators and the scholars’ plan to host focus groups at an international emergency management conference.

How did this project come together?

My collaborator on this project, Dr. Daphne Cain, is a professor in the School of Social Work here at Alabama. The funny thing is when I was looking for a partner for this project who had an expertise in mental health, I was Googling articles and looking up people who had written about the subject. They were all over the country and people I didn't know. I finally said, “There's got to be somebody in Alabama.” I plugged it in and sure enough, she's right down the street from me. We met and instantly hit it off. In terms of our research interests – her expertise is on mental health and mine is on disaster communication – this is going to be a great collaboration.

That mix of disciplines seems unique. Can you talk about how novel this collaboration is?

That’s another reason I'm so excited about this project, and why I was so happy that the Page Center sponsored this research. There's hardly any research out there that theoretically connects disaster, the communication efforts that take place during disaster and the impacts on mental health of everyone involved. There's a very similar track in journalism called trauma journalism. That research looks at the impact of covering traumatic events on reporters, but it also looks at how it influences the outcomes of their stories. On the PR side, there isn't a parallel in terms of trauma public relations or trauma communications. We’re actually still figuring out what to call it.

Was there an incident or occurrence that sparked this research idea?

I've been studying disaster communication for years … and I'm a qualitative researcher, so I talk to people and do observations. During some interviews I was doing a few years ago, I was asking communicators what their barriers were for communicating about a disaster. I was expecting them to say things like limited resources or difficulty partnering with organizations or political barriers. But these experienced communicators I was talking with kept saying things like: “I got to the point where I broke down and I couldn't be on camera anymore” and “I had to leave for a day and there was nobody left who could do the work.” Other people would say, “We had a major flood, and my house was flooded while I was still over here trying to help my emergency management agency.” Honestly, I kept pushing it aside and getting back to, “Well, what were your barriers?” Then I realized I was getting the answer to my questions. I just needed someone with mental health expertise to help me sort it out.

This is such a clear, practical need. How does theory fit into it all?

Theory is a great way to start because we need to understand the phenomenon we're looking at. Daphne and I put together a triad model that includes theories from organizational theory, which help to describe the chaotic operating environment of what's happening in the disaster. Then we have communication models that talk about strategies for communicating with people in crises and disasters. Strategies could be media interviews or social posts or however you are reaching the public during the crisis event. The third piece is psychological first aid, which is triaging mental health needs. It’s saying: “This is what's happening in my community. How can I not only consider the mental health needs of my community, but also, how can I ensure that my team and I are getting the support we need to continue to work under these conditions?” Once we have a deeper explanation of what's happening, then we can come up with best practices to offer disaster communicators.

You will be holding focus groups at the International Association of Emergency Managers conference. How did that come together?

I'd been part of the group, both through research and my volunteer work with the Red Cross, so I was familiar with them. I went to the conference two years ago for some background information, and it was great. First of all, I was a total geek because I was surrounded by a couple thousand people who respond to disasters on a daily basis. It was also great to get international perspectives. To me, it's important to have an understanding of the field in general, even if all I'm looking at is communication. I need to understand the operations, the opportunities and the obstacles.

What’s your plan for this year’s conference?

That conference has really been a great place for me to learn. Being able to travel to Fort Collins for this year's conference with the Page Center funding is fabulous, because I'm going to have a national sample of emergency management communicators in one spot for focus groups. How else could you do that? Perhaps over Zoom, but for focus groups you want them to be together. To get them together in one room this November is going to be so exciting. The focus groups are going to be the first phase of our study, because what we learn from the focus groups will inform interviews. The interviews will be one-on-one, and probably a mix of online and in-person interviews, but that'll come after the focus groups.

How else does the Page Center grant fit into all of this? How does it help achieve your research goals?

We are so thankful for the Page Center funding. It is going to allow me to travel to Colorado Springs with my graduate student, because it will take two people to moderate the focus groups, and I’m glad I have the funding to do that. This is a great experience for my grad student who is going to do some hands-on research with me … the focus groups, doing the analysis and writing it up. I'm so excited to be working with Dr. Cain. This call was perfect for what we wanted to, to build these theories that connect mental health and communication together and to create this new foundation for a research stream. Without that funding, it would be really difficult.