Resilience pathways and help-seeking preferences for Ontario police services

Abstract

Despite the availability of mental health services, post-traumatic stress injuries (PTSI) among Canadian police services members continue to be significantly more prevalent than in the general population. The purpose of this study was to identify sources of resilience and help-seeking preferences among Ontario police personnel. We used a path analysis of online survey data to test the direct and indirect effects of mental and physical health, stress, health literacy, and attitudes toward mental health treatment on life satisfaction, community belonging, and resilience, while controlling for social contextual factors. Self-rated mental health, life satisfaction, and community belonging directly predicted resilience. Multiple positive indirect effects on resilience emerged, including from attitudes towards mental health treatment via community belonging, and mental health and community belonging, both via life satisfaction. Life stress had a negative indirect effect on resilience via life satisfaction. This study offers initial evidence of factors that influence resilience among police personnel and suggests that efforts to support resilience in this population may be well served by focusing on enhancing life satisfaction and community belonging.