The development of a UK police traumatic events checklist

Abstract

One in five UK police officers suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, yet there is no gold standard measure of trauma exposure available. This study coded 4,987 exposures reported by 1,531 UK police officers, using their own language. The resulting checklist describes over 70% of typical ‘worst’ reported traumatic incidents (plus situational factors, including Covid19). The Police Traumatic Experiences Checklist is a practical tool of value for self-assessment and peer support, and can facilitate attempts by Occupational Health and management to improve monitoring and treatment access.

The psychological impact of COVID-19 on police officers

“…However, policing roles, particularly for officers involved in front-line responding, expose them to a high frequency of traumatic exposures, rather than responding to a single traumatic incident. Multiple exposures to trauma can make officers and staff more vulnerable to the development of complex traumatic stress (Miller et al, 2021; Steel et al, 2021).…”

COVID-19, distress and potential trauma exposure in the police service of England and Wales: A mixed method approach

“…When examining the qualitative results, the types of experiences listed by officers loosely matched those listed in the Police Traumatic Events Checklist (PTEC; Miller et al, 2021 ). Not only could the vast majority of experiences shared by officers be accounted for by the type of traumatic events and contextual factors listed in the PTEC, but death-related events and duties (including homicide, suicide, accidental death, body handling and ancillary death duties) were, overall, the most frequently cited types of event in both instances.…”

“…The next four items consider specific events that might be directly related to the current pandemic, and could be considered as extremely stressful, upsetting or potentially hazardous. Given previous trauma research indicates that many officers find working with the deceased and performing death notifications to be particularly distressing ( Miller et al, 2021 ), respondents were asked to indicate whether they had experienced either of the following, in the line of duty, over the last 6 months: ‘ Seen the body of a person who has died from natural causes (including confirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases) ’, and ‘ Performed death notifications in instances where people have died from natural causes (including confirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases)’.…”

“…Given the unique characteristics of their profession, perhaps it is unsurprising that previous research has identified that exposure to potentially traumatic events is relatively commonplace amongst the policing population ( Cartwright and Roach, 2020 ; Elliott-Davies, 2018 ; Miller et al, 2021 ; Syed et al, 2020 ; The Royal Foundation College London, 2020 ), and that up to one in five police officers may suffer from undiagnosed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) within the police population of England and Wales ( Miller et al, 2020 ).…”

“…This deficit in the requisite ‘toolbox’ was the driving force behind the recent development of a UK-centric policing-specific traumatic events checklist. Using the qualitative experiences of over a thousand police officers and staff collected via an online survey in 2018, Miller et al (2021) , created the ‘Police Traumatic Events Checklist’ (PTEC) to help identify the ‘worst’ traumas that police officers in England and Wales were most frequently exposed to. The resulting tool presented a list of ten ‘types’ of traumatic event that accounted for 70% of the typical ‘worst’ traumatic experiences reported by participants, such as sudden deaths (including homicides, suicides and accidental deaths).…”