Mental health of public safety personnel: Developing a model of operational, organizational, and personal factors in public safety organizations.

The work of public safety personnel (PSP) such as police officers, firefighters, correctional officers, and paramedics, as well as other PSP, makes them vulnerable to psychological injuries, which can have profound impacts on their families and the communities they serve. A multitude of complex operational, organizational, and personal factors contribute to the mental health of PSP; however, to date the approach of the research community has been largely to explore the impacts of these factors separately or within single PSP professions. To date, PSP employers have predominantly focused on addressing the personal aspects of PSP mental health through resiliency and stress management interventions. However, the increasing number of psychological injuries among PSPs and the compounding stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrate a need for a new approach to the study of PSP mental health. The following paper discusses the importance of adopting a broader conceptual approach to the study of PSP mental health and proposes a novel model that highlights the need to consider the combined impacts of operational, organizational, and personal factors on PSP mental health. The TRi-Operational-Organizational-Personal Factor Model (TROOP) depicts these key factors as three large pieces of a larger puzzle that is PSP mental health. The TROOP gives working language for public safety organizations, leaders, and researchers to broadly consider the mental health impacts of public safety work.

Prevalence and factors associated with post traumatic stress disorder among field police patrol officers serving in Kampala Metropolitan region.

BACKGROUND: Occupation groups like police officers and fire fighters are exposed to a number of traumatic events which put them at a risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Previous studies have found the prevalence of PTSD in police officers to vary between 7 and 19%. However, most of these studies have been undertaken in western setting with little research having been undertaken in sub-Saharan Africa including Uganda. OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence and factors associated with post-traumatic stress disorder among field police patrol officers serving in Kampala Metropolitan Police (KMP) North Region. METHODS: This was a cross sectional study that was conducted on 392 field police patrol officers serving in KMP North Region. Diagnosis of PTSD was undertaken using the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-5. In order to assess for psychiatric comorbidities, the study used the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.) RESULTS: In this study, the prevalence of PTSD was 7.4%. An additional 62.5% had sub-threshold PTSD, which was defined as, the presence of at least one PTSD symptom but not meeting full criteria for PTSD diagnosis. The factors found to be significantly associated with PTSD were all related to the presence of psychiatric comorbidities, namely the presence of: a current major depressive episode (aOR = 4.7; 95% CI: 1.5- 14.8; p = .009); an alcohol use disorder (aOR = 5.1; 95% CI: 2.0-13.0; p = .001); and presence of dissociation symptoms (aOR = 6.7; 95% CI: 2.0-22.2; p = .002). CONCLUSION: PTSD is one of the common psychiatric disorders experienced by serving police officers in Uganda. The tendency of PTSD in this group to co-occur with other psychiatric disorders means that any treatment program to address it should be part of a comprehensive multi-disorder mental health treatment programme in the police office.

Causal Model Analysis of Police Officers' COVID-19 Fear, Resistance to Organizational Change Effect on Emotional Exhaustion and Insomnia.

Since the end of 2019, COVID-19 has continued to spread around the world. The police have performed various epidemic prevention and routine duties. This study explores how police officers' COVID-19 fear, resistance to organizational change, intolerance of uncertainty, and secondary trauma affect emotional exhaustion and insomnia in the context of COVID-19. A total of 205 valid police samples were collected in this study, and the established hypotheses were tested using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The results of the study confirmed that during the COVID-19 outbreak, secondary trauma of police officers positively affects emotional exhaustion and insomnia; intolerance of uncertainty positively affects emotional exhaustion; resistance to organizational change positively affects intolerance of uncertainty and emotional exhaustion; intolerance of uncertainty mediates the relationship between resistance to organizational change and emotional exhaustion; COVID-19 fear positively influences secondary trauma.

Association between perceived stress, coping profile and fear during the COVID-19 pandemic among male and female police students.

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak was a sudden unknown stressor that could cause fear among people. Police officers were in the front lines, often unknowingly in direct contact with infected individuals, thus fear of getting infected (i.e., fear of COVID-19) could be higher in this population. Police students are preparing for the job of police officers and how they cope with a sudden unknown situation could be of importance for job performance and their mental health if such a situation occurs. This study aimed to investigate the association of perceived stress and coping strategies with fear of COVID-19 in police students. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Perceived stress scale-10, Brief COPE, and Fear of COVID-19 (FSV-19) were administered to 340 police students (female = 183 [53.82%] and male = 157 [46.18%]). Correlation analysis was applied to test the association between perceived stress, all dimension of coping and fear of COVID-19. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to investigate between-gender differences. For mediating and moderating effect of coping primary coping style were used. RESULTS: MANOVA reviled that significant differences occurred in perceived stress, 3 primary coping styles and fear of COVID-19 based on a gender. Stepwise regression analysis extracted the most significant predictors of fear of COVID-19. Perceived stress was the strongest predictor in general and in both genders. Denial and self-distancing were significant coping subscales in males, while humour and denial were significant in females. CONCLUSIONS: Perceived stress and coping strategies that students used to deal with the situation moderately defined their fear of COVID-19 outbreak, with perceived stress being the strongest predictor. Med Pr. 2022;73(3):179-90.

Mental health and well-being impacts of COVID-19 on rural paramedics, police, community nurses and child protection workers.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health and well-being of rural paramedics, police, community nursing and child protection staff. METHOD: An online survey was distributed to investigate the sources of stress and support across individual, task and organisational domains. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: The survey was completed by 1542 paramedics, police, community nurses and child protection workers from all states and territories of Australia. This study describes the data for the 632 rural participants. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The main measures of well-being were the Public Health Questionnaire (PHQ9), the Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD7), the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), workplace engagement, intention to quit and COVID-19-related stress. RESULTS: The mean depression and anxiety scores were 8.2 (PHQ9) and 6.8 (GAD7). This is 2-3 times that found in the general community. Over half (56.1%) of respondents showed high emotional exhaustion (burnout). The emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and personal accomplishment mean scores were 28.5, 9.3 and 34.2, respectively. The strongest associations with burnout and psychological distress were workload, provision of practical support, training and organisational communication. A significant proportion of respondents were seriously considering quitting (27.4%) or looking for a new job with a different employer (28.5%) in the next 12 months. CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 has increased the workload and stress on rural front-line community staff. The major sources of stress were related to organisations' responses to COVID-19 and not COVID-19 per se. The data suggest the most effective mental health interventions are practical and preventive, such as firstly ensuring fair and reasonable workloads.

Police vs doctors: Harassment of Covid "heroes", by Covid "heroes"?

Violence against medical professionals and destruction of hospital property by frustrated patients and their relatives occur frequently in India (1) and in other countries (2, 3). However, harassment of healthcare workers by the police has, so far, not been an issue in the Indian healthcare system. Now, cases of harassment of medical professionals by the police have emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic. Ironically, both doctors and police personnel have been considered "frontline heroes" against the pandemic in India. We present some cases of such attacks.

Detecting the Relationship between the Stress Levels and Perceived Burnout in Law-enforcement Officers during the COVID-19 Outbreak: A Cross-sectional Study.

The present study aimed to determine the effect of burnout and stress levels on law enforcement officers' perceptions and behaviors to emphasize the need for adequate attention and care in these individuals during the COVID-19 outbreak. The research group of this cross-sectional study conducted in July-August 2020 was formed by the law enforcement officers. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Burnout Measure-Short Version (BM-SV) and a personal data form prepared by the researchers were used in the study. Data were analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 16.0 software package program. The PSS scores were higher and significant in the group whose working hours were not increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic and they thought that there was a decrease in crime rates and did not need psychological support (p ≤ .05). The PSS scores were higher and significant in the group who took the warnings about COVID-19 into consideration, were afraid of contracting the virus, did not care about the progress of the epidemic and used the mask correctly. Additionally, the BM-SV scores were higher and significant in the group who stated that they were not afraid of contracting the virus (p ≤.05). A comprehensive crisis prevention and intervention system including epidemiological monitoring/observing, screening, referral and targeted interventions should be established to reduce the perceived level of stress and burnout in law enforcement and prevent further mental health problems.

'Policing' a pandemic: Garda wellbeing and COVID-19.

In response to the global pandemic COVID-19, the Irish government has called upon the Garda Síochána to implement an unparalleled mode of policing to mitigate and contain the spread of the Coronavirus. Studies investigating smaller scale epidemics, such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), indicate that staff at the frontlines of an outbreak are exposed to an insuperable amount of stress and experience increased psychological morbidities as a result. Furthermore, research not only indicates that heighted levels of psychological distress are an occupational hazard associated with the law enforcement profession, but that members of the Garda Síochána feel their mental health needs are largely unmet by their organisation. Given the pandemic's propensity to expose officers to indeterminate echelons of physical and psychological threat; there has never been a more appropriate time to explore the potential burdens associated with 'policing' a pandemic, question the governments capacity to address the psychological support needs of frontline professionals, and plan future research for best practice.