Officials in the South African Police Service (SAPS) are exposed to multiple traumatic incidents. The effect of such exposure is aggravated by various contributing factors that may cause intense trauma for the individual, family members and the police service. The risk factors include post-traumatic stress, acute stress, depression, alcohol abuse, suicide and impaired productivity. It is therefore important that officials have direct access to support. The efficacy of the present trauma intervention programmes in the SAPS is questioned, because despite their implementation police officials still present high levels of acute and behavioural problems.

This article focuses on the development of a psycho-social therapeutic programme (PTP) for police officials attached to the specialised units in the North West province. The objective is to prevent the onset of post-traumatic stress disorder and the development of trauma-related stress symptoms soon after exposure to a traumatic event. The main focus of this article is on the themes and contents of the designed PTP. The themes of the programme are schematically presented, after which it is discussed in detail according to the subject, aim and content. 445Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk 2017:53(4) A PSYCHO-SOCIAL THERAPEUTIC GROUP WORK PROGRAMME PREVENTING THE ONSET OF POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER AMONG POLICE OFFICIALS ATTACHED TO THE SPECIALISED UNITS IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SERVICEPieter Boshoff, Herman Strydom INTRODUCTIONPolice officials are continuously exposed to job-related trauma and stress such as dealing with unlawful, often dangerous actions of citizens and abusive treatment in the workplace with limited access to psycho-social support. Police officials have more stress-related physical complaints and psychological and social needs than workers in most other professions (Anshel, 2000). The exploration of these needs should form the foundation of an effectively designed psycho-social therapeutic programme (hereafter referred to as a PTP) to act in the best interest of the traumatised police official, to address issues in police work that affect their overall psycho-social wellness, and to empower them with skills to cope more effectively with their circumstances (Litz, Gray & Bryant, 2002;Morash, Haarr & Kwak, 2006). This article describes the aim of the study and provides guidelines for the implementation of the PTP. The planning and compilation of the group work programme are explained and form the major part of this article. PROBLEM STATEMENTPolice officials are exposed to a unique work environment and face potentially traumatic events which could have an impact on their physical, emotional and social wellbeing (Watson, Jorgensen, Meiring & Hill, 2012). The high risk involved in police work and the ever changing role of the police in society impose new work demands for police officials, making this a highly stressful occupation (Ortega, Brenner & Leather, 2007). As a result police officials are often confused and uncertain regarding the tactical and operational decisions they have to make, while they are expected to apply good judgment under difficult and dangerous circumstances (Deschamps, Pagnon-Badiner, Marchand & Merle, 2003). Their experience of stress arises from the exposure to specific physical or psycho-social demands at work and the perceived imbalance between those demands and the resources available to meet them. According to Morash, et al. (2006), there is evidence that some stress emanates from a lack of support from networks at work and at home. It is, however, necessary for police officials exposed to trauma to receive sufficient and effective support based on their specific need...

As a result of the critical nature of police officers' work, it is of utmost importance that they have direct access to support. The efficacy of the present trauma intervention programmes in the South African Police Service (SAPS) is questioned, because despite the implementation of trauma intervention programmes, police officials still present high levels of acute and behavioural problems. A literature overview of proposed international trauma intervention approaches concentrating on both the psychological, behavioural and social factors affecting police officers exposed to trauma, as well as those models implemented by SAPS are discussed. The objective of this article is to critically appraise existing trauma intervention approaches to better understand, compare and extrapolate key elements of these approaches, and to reconfigure them into a comprehensive holistic psychosocial therapeutic trauma intervention programme for use among the police in South Africa. It was found that the cognitive behavioural therapy model (CBT), prolonged exposure (PE) and the eco-systemic perspective, which was specifically developed for social work, dispose some of the best elements to be reconfigured into a holistic psycho-social trauma intervention programme.

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