Volunteers in an epidemic context: psychological impact, protection and innovations in practices
This research entitled “Volunteers in an epidemic context: psychological impact, protection and innovations in practices” is taking place in Marseille and French Guyana, and has 3 objectives:
- to describe the psychological and social consequences of involving CRf volunteers in the response to the epidemic in the medium term;
- to identify the individual and collective adaptation strategies implemented by volunteers in two different intervention contexts;
- finally, analyse how these coping strategies are forming and transforming, according to social representations of the risk of being contaminated, the risk of burnout and volunteer involvement.
The results will propose adaptations of prevention and support strategies for healthcare teams and will highlight the impact of the epidemic on voluntary workers in organisations for which few data exist. They may also highlight positive creations and adaptations that could be potentially perpetuated in the future.
Emilie Mosnier is a physician and PhD in Epidemiology, Public Health and Clinical Research at the University of Guyana, where she defended her thesis in 2017 entitled “Epidemiology of infectious and epidemic diseases in isolated Amazonian environments”. She is affiliated to the University of Aix Marseille as a teacher-researcher, and to the Cayenne Hospital Center on a half-time annualised basis to work on health and research programs as an infectious disease specialist.