Background Mental health screening in the workplace aims to identify employees who are becoming symptomatic, in order to provide timely support and evidence-based interventions to those affected. Given the stigma associated with mental illness, accurate disclosure of mental health symptoms cannot be assumed. The present study sought to investigate factors associated with the accurate reporting of mental health symptoms amongst police officers. Methods A total of 90 serving police officers completed identical mental health screening surveys, one administered by the employer and the other anonymously by an independent organisation. Responses were then linked to compare differences in the number and severity of mental health symptoms reported on each questionnaire. Results Comparisons of matched self-report scores indicated that employees under-reported symptoms of mental health disorders when completing screening administered by their employer, with only 76.3% of symptoms declared. Under-reporting occurred regardless of gender and symptom type. Less senior staff (p = 0.05) and those with the most severe post-traumatic stress disorder and common mental disorder symptoms (p = 0.008) were significantly more likely to under-report symptoms. Conclusions Employer-administered mental health screening is not able to accurately capture all mental health symptoms amongst first responders. The fact that the severity of symptoms predicted the level of under-reporting means that simple changes to cut-off values cannot correct this problem.

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Background Pre-employment psychological screening to detect psychological vulnerability is common amongst emergency service organizations worldwide, yet the evidence for its ability to predict poor mental health outcomes is limited with published studies looking at post-recruitment research data rather than data collected by the organizations themselves. Aims The present study sought to investigate the ability of pre-employment screening to predict later psychological injury-related absenteeism amongst police officers. Methods A nested case–control study using prospective data was conducted. One hundred and fifty police officers with a liability-accepted psychological injury were matched to a control group of 150 psychologically healthy officers. Conditional logistic regression was used to examine associations between Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) scales measuring factors research has shown to predict psychological injury (Neuroticism, Psychoticism, Introversion, Disconstraint and Aggressiveness) and psychopathology (Depression, Anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]) with subsequent psychological injury. Results Contrary to expectations, we were unable to demonstrate any association between validated pre-employment measures of personality and psychopathology with mental health outcomes amongst newly recruited police officers over a 7-year follow-up. Conclusions Other measures may be better able to predict future mental health problems in police recruits.

Pre-employment screening to assess for psychological vulnerability is common in trauma-exposed occupations such as policing. However, the ability of such screening to predict those at increased risk of subsequent mental health problems has been questioned. The present study sought to investigate the ability of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) to predict absenteeism related to psychological injury in police officers. Pre-employment screening data from 1,399 sworn police officers was linked to organizational records. A total of 150 police officers who had taken at least 2 weeks’ sick leave with work-related mental health concerns were matched to 150 healthy controls. Conditional logistic regression was used to examine any association between MMPI-2 scales and psychological injury-related absenteeism. We found no evidence that elevations in the pre-employment MMPI-2 scores of police recruits were associated with an increased chance of future absenteeism as a result of psychological injury (P > 0.05). In addition, there was no evidence of an increased likelihood of psychological injury-related absenteeism among those with a higher number of positive pre-employment risk factors (P = 0.09). While the MMPI-2 may be able to predict different outcomes among police officers, it is important to note that based on these results, the MMPI-2, if used at pre-employment, is not able to predict later psychological injury-related absenteeism.