Occupational Health and Safety of Volunteer Emergency Responders in Europe
An Integrated OHS Framework
Project Overview
An investigation into the occupational health and safety of volunteer emergency responders across Europe, linking risk exposure, health, resilience, and operational performance.
Project Overview
Volunteer emergency responders play a vital role in European disaster response, facing physical, biological, and psychosocial risks while performing tasks similar to paid personnel. However, occupational health and safety (OHS) systems are largely employment-based, leaving volunteers with potential protection gaps. European research remains fragmented, examining risk exposure, health outcomes, resilience, and operational performance separately. Existing guidance only partially addresses volunteers' needs, highlighting the need for an integrated OHS framework.
Research Objectives
To develop a literature-grounded, integrated framework linking occupational risk exposure, health outcomes, resilience capacity and operational performance of volunteer emergency responders in Europe.
Identify the OHS hazards and health outcomes most consistently documented.
Examine how exposure, health and resilience relate to operational performance.
Assess how far IFRC standards and EU OSH law address volunteers' OHS needs, and derive recommendations.
Research Methodology
Integrative literature review (Whittemore & Knafl, 2005) of peer-reviewed English-language studies from 2016–2026, identified through three databases and citation tracking. Studies were appraised with JBI checklists and the MMAT. The 23 core studies were synthesised into eight themes, and the OHS needs identified were compared with IFRC volunteer standards and EU OSH law.
Integrated Framework & Action Domains
Pre-deployment
Psychosocial screening, preparedness, and immunisation checks.
Deployment
Peer support, working-time limits, and responder registration.
Post-deployment
Health follow-up and cumulative exposure monitoring.
Organisational Policy
Supervisor recognition, legal protection, and integrated monitoring.
Key Research Findings
Exposure → health (consistent)
20 studies linked exposure to mental health outcomes. Post-traumatic stress rose with cumulative traumatic exposure in German volunteer firefighters and lifeguards.
Health ↔ resilience (mixed)
15 studies examined resilience, mostly individual factors. Organisational factors such as supervisor recognition gave mixed results.
Resilience → performance (untested)
only 4 studies related health or resilience to performance, and none used objective operational outcomes.
Integrated OHS framework
the evidence was organised into four domains (before, during and after deployment, plus organisational policy), with the evidence strength stated for each.
Engage with This Research
We welcome dialogue with universities, emergency response organizations, and researchers.