ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Suicide in international police is 2-3-fold that of the general population. Risk factors include suicidal ideation, diagnosis of mood or post-traumatic stress disorders, family/psychological problems, suffered abuse, alcohol use, service suspension, and stigma. A false stigma-related myth is to believe that suicide does not cause concern within military settings. METHODS: We administered post-training to 6103 Italian Police workers a 30-item questionnaire to assess the perception of suicidal phenomena. We conducted descriptive statistics, principal component analysis, and analyses of variance of data. RESULTS: We identified seven factors, i.e., health and environmental risk factors; need for new preventive interventions; emotional reaction to suicide; negation, indifference and minimization; utility of current preventive interventions; risk related to personal factors; intervention difficulties. CONCLUSIONS: The questionnaire showed content validity and consistency in investigating perceptions about suicide in the State Police. Data synthesis showed a mature approach and appropriate perception of the suicide problem on behalf of Italian State Police workers.
