Assessing the Relative Impact of Diverse Stressors among Public Safety Personnel

Carleton, R. Nicholas; Afifi, Tracie O.; Taillieu, Tamara; Turner, Sarah; Mason, J. D. T.; Ricciardelli, Rosemary; McCreary, Donald R.; Vaughan, Adam D.; Anderson, Greg; Krakauer, Rachel L.; Donnelly, Elizabeth; Camp, Ronald D.; Groll, Dianne; Cramm, Heidi; MacPhee, Renée S.; Griffiths, Curt T.

doi:10.3390/ijerph17041234

Cited by 128 publications

(210 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…The high prevalence of sleep disturbances reported in the current sample were consistent with previous international research documenting sleep difficulties in firefighters, e.g., [22,31], paramedics, e.g., [26,32,64], and police, e.g., [10,29,31]. Canadian PSP sleep patterns may be impacted by long work hours, varying shift work, high stress, and exposure to potentially psychologically traumatic events [8,9], which may cumulatively increase the risk of mental disorder symptoms [31,65]. Insomnia has been strongly associated with various mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD [23].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Sleep Quality and Mental Disorder Symptoms among Canadian Public Safety Personnel

Angehrn

Sapach

Ricciardelli

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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Poor sleep quality is associated with numerous mental health concerns and poorer overall physical health. Sleep disturbances are commonly reported by public safety personnel (PSP) and may contribute to the risk of developing mental disorders or exacerbate mental disorder symptoms. The current investigation was designed to provide estimates of sleep disturbances among PSP and explore the relationship between sleep quality and mental health status. PSP completed screening measures for sleep quality and diverse mental disorders through an online survey. Respondents (5813) were grouped into six categories: communications officials, correctional workers, firefighters, paramedics, police officers, and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Many PSP in each category reported symptoms consistent with clinical insomnia (49-60%). Rates of sleep disturbances differed among PSP categories (p < 0.001, ω = 0.08). Sleep quality was correlated with screening measures for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and alcohol use disorder for all PSP categories (r = 0.18-0.70, p < 0.001). PSP who screened positive for insomnia were 3.43-6.96 times more likely to screen positive for a mental disorder. All PSP reported varying degrees of sleep quality, with the lowest disturbances found among firefighters and municipal/provincial police. Sleep appears to be a potentially important factor for PSP mental health.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Sleep Quality and Mental Disorder Symptoms among Canadian Public Safety Personnel

Angehrn

Sapach

Ricciardelli

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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“…Further research is required to determine the best practices for supporting help-seeking among PSP. Contemporary attempts to use education for increasing mental health knowledge, decreasing stigma, increasing resilience, and improving mental health appear to have limited impact (Carleton et al, 2018c), possibly due to important differences in occupational stressors or PPTE exposure types (Carleton et al, 2019(Carleton et al, , 2020a. The nature of PSP work may make prevention of mental health injuries unrealistic, which underscores the importance of having pervasive proactive and reactive strategies that are readily engaged and effective.…”

Section: Strengths and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining Mental Health Knowledge, Stigma, and Service Use Intentions Among Public Safety Personnel

2020

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experience an elevated risk for mental disorders due to inherent work-related stress. Several programs have been designed to increase mental health knowledge, intending to reduce stigma, and increase mental health service helpseeking (e.g., resilience training); however, extant programs have not demonstrated sustained improvements for PSP mental health. The current study assessed levels of mental health knowledge, stigma, and service use intentions in a sample of Canadian PSP and compared trends to published estimates of mental health symptoms across PSP categories to inform future programming. Methods: PSP completed questionnaires assessing mental health knowledge, stigma against coworkers with mental illness, and professional service use intentions. Correlations among variables and one-way analyses of variance were conducted to assess differences among categories. PSP were categorized into six categories for comparison: communication officials, correctional workers, firefighters, municipal/provincial police, paramedics, and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Results: There were significant differences between categories for each variable. Correctional workers reported the most mental health knowledge, least stigma, and highest intentions to use mental health services, and the highest positive screens for mental disorders. Conversely, firefighters reported the lowest mental health knowledge, highest stigma, and lowest willingness to seek professional help, and the lowest prevalence of positive screens for mental disorders. Discussion: The results contrast previously hypothesized associations among mental health variables where education, stigma reduction, and help-seeking have been expected to improve mental health. The discrepant results offer potentially critical information for organizational policies to better support PSP. Individuals reporting mental health symptoms may be a more appropriate target audience for intervention strategies, given the possible, crucial role personal experience plays in increasing mental health knowledge, and ultimately, encouraging help-seeking.

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“…These front-line personnel suffer from high rates of poor sleep, workplace fatigue, occupational stress, burnout, emotional exhaustion, and violence in the workplace. [1][2][3][4][5] In most communities, public safety personnel maintain readiness 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Maintaining readiness requires that many work long duration shifts, work more than 40 hours per week, and unplanned overtime hours.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The shift work nature of public safety occupations contributes to many reporting inadequate sleep, poor sleep quality, fatigue, occupational stress, emotional exhaustion, and burnout. [1][2][3][4] Previous research has shown that greater than half of police officers, firefighters, and EMS shift workers report poor sleep quality or inadequate sleep. 4,6,7 The hazards of poor sleep and workplace fatigue are numerous.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Should public safety shift workers be allowed to nap while on duty?

Patterson

Weaver

Guyette

et al. 2020

American J Industrial Med

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Fatigue and sleep deficiency among public safety personnel are threats to wellness, public and personal safety, and workforce retention. Napping strategies may reduce work‐related fatigue, improve safety and health, yet in some public safety organizations it is discouraged or prohibited. Our aim with this commentary is to define intra‐shift napping, summarize arguments for and against it, and to outline potential applications of this important fatigue mitigation strategy supported by evidence. We focus our discussion on emergency medical services (EMS); a key component of the public safety system, which is comprised of police, fire, and EMS. The personnel who work in EMS stand to benefit from intra‐shift napping due to frequent use of extended duration shifts, a high prevalence of personnel working multiple jobs, and evidence showing that greater than half of EMS personnel report severe fatigue, poor sleep quality, inadequate inter‐shift recovery, and excessive daytime sleepiness. The benefits of intra‐shift napping include decreased sleepiness and fatigue, improved recovery between shifts, decreased anxiety, and reduced feelings of burnout. Intra‐shift napping also mitigates alterations in clinician blood pressure associated with disturbed sleep and shift work. The negative consequences of napping include negative public perception, acute performance deficits stemming from sleep inertia, and the potential costs associated with reduced performance. While there are valid arguments against intra‐shift napping, we believe that the available scientific evidence favors it as a key component of fatigue mitigation and workplace wellness. We further believe that these arguments extend beyond EMS to all sectors of public safety.

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Assessing the Relative Impact of Diverse Stressors among Public Safety Personnel

Cited by 128 publications

References 73 publications

Sleep Quality and Mental Disorder Symptoms among Canadian Public Safety Personnel

Sleep Quality and Mental Disorder Symptoms among Canadian Public Safety Personnel

Examining Mental Health Knowledge, Stigma, and Service Use Intentions Among Public Safety Personnel

Should public safety shift workers be allowed to nap while on duty?

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