Trauma Resilience Training for Police: Psychophysiological and Performance Effects

Abstract

The objective of this study is to test the effects of police trauma resilience training on stress and performance during a critical incident police work simulation. Rookie police officers (N=18) participated in a randomized trial of a 10-week imagery and skills training program versus training as usual. Twelve months later, psychophysiological stress and police work performance were assessed during a live critical incident simulation. Training resulted in significantly less negative mood, less heart rate reactivity, a larger increase in antithrombin, and better police performance compared to controls. Trends for cortisol and self-reported stress also suggested benefits of training. This novel training program is a promising paradigm for improving police well-being, stress resiliency, and optimizing job performance.

Effects of Mental Strength Training for Police Officers: a Three-Wave Quasi-experimental Study

“…Several studies on the effects of training programs among officers as described earlier (e.g., Arnetz et al 2009) showed promising results. However, a systematic review by Peñalba et al (2008) report psychological and psychosocial benefits found within small-scale studies, but stress the need for more well-designed studies to establish more thorough proof of efficacy of these programs.…”

“…To date, several intervention programs had been developed such as mental imaging training (Arnetz et al 2009), resilience training (Devilly and Varker 2013), and Heartmath® stress techniques (McCraty et al 2009). …”

“…Within these different compositions of training components, a plurality of outcomes had been associated with these differing training types. Among others, these training types have been found to enhance general health (Arnetz et al 2013;Backman et al 1997), mental health (Williams et al 2010), and/or reduce stress levels (Arnetz et al 2009;McCraty et al 1999McCraty et al , 2009Ranta and Sud 2008;Zach et al 2007).…”

“…First, we assessed the efficacy of the program among all participating police officers, additionally we examined potential benefits among police officers who were recently exposed to PTE. Considering promising past results (e.g., Arnetz et al 2009), we hypothesized that the MST would enhance psychological resilience in an experimental group as compared to a comparison group. Furthermore, we hypothesized that the trained group showed less post-training MDH as compared to a comparison group.…”

“…A report on the functioning of Dutch police officers in 2011 concluded that the Dutch police officers were (strongly) limited in their employability as officers: the required psychological resilience was at risk (Andersson Elffers Felix 2011). Furthermore, the report concluded that approximately 25% of all police officers suffered from MHDs, ranging from PTSD to anxiety.…”