Police staff and mental health: barriers and recommendations for improving help-seeking

Abstract

Mental disorders are prevalent among public safety personnel (PSP) yet many people working across public safety professions appear reluctant to seek care for mental health-related concerns. Given the prevalence and impact of compromised mental health on these populations, finding ways to increase use of psychological support for police staff and officers is necessary. We conducted an interview and focus groups (n= 9) with police service members (n= 33) to examine the barriers police officers (n= 25) and communicators (n= 8) report facing when seeking treatment, and their suggestions for improving access to treatment. We identified three main barriers: stigma, worries about confidentiality, and occupationspecific experience with people in the community who present in mental distress. Three suggestions emerged from our participants that may improve current mental health support, namely, ensuring confidentiality, easy-to-use electronic resources, and access to occupation-specific content. We discuss the implications of our results with suggestions for policy and practice.

Mental Health Training, Attitudes toward Support, and Screening Positive for Mental Disorders among Canadian Coast Guard and Conservation and Protection Officers

“…The employee assistance program result is consistent with a previous study examining mental health training and attitudes toward support among a diverse national sample of Canadian PSP [ 21 ]. In Canada, the most common professional resource offered to PSP is the employee assistance program [ 21 ]; nevertheless, despite the broad access to these programs [ 33 ], most Canadian PSP (63.7%) reported they would never or only as a last resort access theirs [ 21 ]. The current results suggest that, despite PSP and CCG and C&P Officers having broad access to employee assistance programs, these programs are generally underutilized, highlighting the need to identify and address the barriers to accessing this resource.…”

“…Barriers to support should be identified and targeted by training as part of efforts to increase CCG and C&P willingness to access professional and non-professional support. Stigma is a well-documented barrier to seeking support for mental health among PSP [ 21 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 ]. The challenges from stigma are underscored by the unwillingness of CCG and C&P to access support from a colleague, a leader, or their employee assistance program.…”

“…The challenges from stigma are underscored by the unwillingness of CCG and C&P to access support from a colleague, a leader, or their employee assistance program. CCG and C&P officers may resist seeking care due to fear that others will deem them as weak or unreliable [ 33 ] or fear that seeking help for mental health challenges may impact progression in their careers (i.e., promotional opportunities [ 38 , 39 ]).…”

“…Informal mental health services may be perceived as more desirable than professional clinical services, particularly with respect to initial access to services [ 21 , 33 ]. This is supported by the unwillingness of CCG and C&P Officers to access a psychologist or a psychiatrist.…”

“…This is particularly important as one needs to be free of mental health concerns to go on ship, therefor having a mental health disorder could result in an inability to qualify for seafaring. PSP have also previously reported concerns that their choice to attend therapy would not remain confidential [ 40 ], thus leading to stigma and labeling by colleagues and leadership [ 33 ]. Additional mental health training and support for members and leaders targeting stigma towards those with mental health challenges is needed to increase willingness to access all types of professional and non-professional supports among CCG and C&P officers.…”