Understanding the mental health and wellbeing needs of police officers and staff in Scotland

Demou, Evangelia; Hale, Hannah; Hunt, Kate

doi:10.1080/15614263.2020.1772782

Cited by 55 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…When the response to chronic job stress is inadequate, burnout appears as an occupational phenomenon [ 20 , 21 ] defined as a “prolonged response to chronic emotional and interpersonal stressors on the job, [expressed on] three dimensions of exhaustion, cynicism and inefficacy” [ 22 ] (p. 397). Regarding police officers’ burnout, innumerous studies found high levels of exhaustion and depersonalization, relationships between burnout and mental/psychological problems such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder [ 4 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ], as well as depersonalization as a coping strategy, emotional suppression and difficulties to express true emotions [ 27 ]. Furthermore, police officers’ burnout can be related with internal or external aggression, a current social and political concern.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Job Stress, Burnout and Coping in Police Officers: Relationships and Psychometric Properties of the Organizational Police Stress Questionnaire

Queirós

Passos²,

Bártolo

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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Policing is a stressful occupation, which impairs police officers’ physical/mental health and elicits burnout, aggressive behaviors and suicide. Resilience and coping facilitate the management of job stress policing, which can be operational or organizational. All these constructs are associated, and they must be assessed by instruments sensitive to policing idiosyncrasies. This study aims to identify operational and organizational stress, burnout, resilient coping and coping strategies among police officers, as well to analyze the psychometric properties of a Portuguese version of the Organizational Police Stress Questionnaire. A cross-sectional study, with online questionnaires, collected data of 1131 police officers. With principal components and confirmatory factor analysis, PSQ-org revealed adequate psychometric properties, despite the exclusion of four items, and revealed a structure with two factors (poor management and lack of resources, and responsibilities and burden). Considering cut-off points, 88.4% police officers presented high operational stress, 87.2% high organizational stress, 10.9% critical values for burnout and 53.8% low resilient coping, preferring task-orientated than emotion and avoidance coping. Some differences were found according to gender, age and job experience. Job stress and burnout correlated negatively with resilient coping, enthusiasm towards job and task-orientated coping. Results reinforce the importance to invest on police officers’ occupational health.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Job Stress, Burnout and Coping in Police Officers: Relationships and Psychometric Properties of the Organizational Police Stress Questionnaire

Queirós

Passos²,

Bártolo

et al. 2020

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A common pattern for policing is 2 day shifts, 2 late shifts and 2 night shifts, followed by 4 days off, referred to as a six on four off. Currently, few apps allow for customization concerning these patterns to help meet the needs and requirements of shift workers [33] and specifically police officers [1][2][3][4][5]. This correlates with participants' responses and literature demonstrating a dearth of relevant research being published in this area [34], which our project helps to redress.…”

Section: Gathering Views About How Technology Could Be Used More Effectivelymentioning

confidence: 75%

“…An individual could theoretically customize a suite of apps to use for managing aspects of health they were interested in or adopt a generic multifunctional tool such as Apple or Samsung Health as a very small number of participants had (Textbox 1). However, a much larger proportion of participants felt that this did not provide a suitable solution when coupled with the particular lifestyles and working environments of their jobs [1][2][3][4][5].…”

Section: Gathering Views About How Technology Could Be Used More Effectivelymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Scoping the Need for a Tailored mHealth App to Improve Health and Well-being Behavioral Transformation in the Police: Exploring the Views of UK Police Workers via Web-Based Surveys and Client Meetings

Swanston¹,

Pulman²,

Doğan³

et al. 2021

JMIR Form Res

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Background Police officers often work long, unsocial hours in a highly pressurized environment and may experience difficulties in managing their health and well-being. Their jobs can be highly stressful and feature unusual working hours and multiple shift patterns. When considering the policing environment of 2021, many roles that were previously the domain of warranted officers are now being carried out by nonwarranted police staff equivalents. These police staff roles are relatively new to policing but put staff under some of the same stresses as police officers. A UK police force requested help to investigate technologies that could be used to improve health and well-being and research how these technologies could be used to measure and track health behavior change. Objective Historical research studies need to be appraised in light of this new policing environment, and new research also needs to include this shift in dynamics when considering aspects of policing, including their health and well-being. This study explores police officer and staff attitudes toward and their use of existing health-related technology, highlights existing practices, and gathers views about how technology could be used more effectively. Methods A web-based survey was completed by police officers and staff (N=213) during the initial period of the UK lockdown in 2020. The survey was designed to find the solutions that participants used outside of those supplied by their employer, identify issues or problems, and find what they would like a hypothetical app to focus on. Additional requirements data were captured through client meetings, including discussions concerning previously attempted solutions and those currently in place. Thematic analysis was undertaken to identify the key themes. Results Attitudes toward and uses of existing health-related technology were captured, and existing practices were highlighted. Participants identified a need for an app to consider that a user was on shift—an important point, as many issues and problems with elements of their health and well-being involved shift work. Data also highlighted that a multifunctional tool would be more beneficial to participants than focusing on just 1 element. The key features and four domains were identified for app coverage. The prioritized order of importance of the four domains was activity, food and diet, sleep, and fluid intake. Conclusions For police officers and staff, research data suggest that there is a previously unidentified requirement for a mobile app that could provide an easily accessible platform for them to use, regardless of the current location; one that could provide guidelines on diet, lifestyle habits, and health behavior to help the user make informed decisions to assist in personalized behavior change. Notably, one which is multifunctional and which also aligns effectively with the irregular shift patterns of its users.

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“…The dangers inherent in the role of a police officer, their exposure to violence, changes in the environment and the continual change in police organizational structures are factors that can create stress and psychological problems in individual police officers (Becker et al , 2009; Demou et al , 2020). According to Anderson and Lo (2011), a police officer will be exposed to more violent or traumatic events or images during their career than most citizens will encounter in a lifetime.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk and protective factors for post-traumatic stress among New Zealand police personnel: a cross sectional study

Heyer¹

2021

PIJPSM

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PurposeThe purpose of this research was to examine which factors increase the risk of post-traumatic stress in police officers to assist with identifying strategies that will minimize its occurrence.Design/methodology/approachThis study of constabulary and non-constabulary members of the New Zealand Police has been based on an 80-question electronic survey, which was sent to all serving, resigned and retired members of the New Zealand Police Association, which number approximately 18,000. The survey included a series of questions that measured the post-traumatic stress that participants experienced.FindingsVariables associated with post-traumatic stress were examined using logistic regression modeling techniques. The study found that post-traumatic stress was prevalent among serving, resigned and retired police members and exposure to trauma, especially prolonged exposure, was significantly associated with post-traumatic stress. More than 49% of participants were found to have some post-traumatic stress symptoms and more than 14% of participants indicated a presumptive clinical diagnosis of post-traumatic stress.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations of the research included not include questions relating to the Social Provisions Scale (SPS) and General Health Questionnaire, nor did it include police officer recruits. A further limitation was that it was a cross-sectional study.Originality/valueAn understanding as to which variables influence or increase post-traumatic stress disorder is important for police officers and the police institution. The findings from this study indicate that exposure to trauma is strongly associated with high levels of post-traumatic stress, while good sleep and relaxation decrease the influence of such variables.

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Understanding the mental health and wellbeing needs of police officers and staff in Scotland

Cited by 55 publications

References 50 publications

Job Stress, Burnout and Coping in Police Officers: Relationships and Psychometric Properties of the Organizational Police Stress Questionnaire

Job Stress, Burnout and Coping in Police Officers: Relationships and Psychometric Properties of the Organizational Police Stress Questionnaire

Scoping the Need for a Tailored mHealth App to Improve Health and Well-being Behavioral Transformation in the Police: Exploring the Views of UK Police Workers via Web-Based Surveys and Client Meetings

Risk and protective factors for post-traumatic stress among New Zealand police personnel: a cross sectional study

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