Stress, coping, and psychological well‐being among forensic health care professionals

Abstract

Purpose. Although forensic services are often regarded as highly stressful environments, there has been a surprising lack of research into the phenomena of occupational stress among forensic health care professionals (FHCP) in the United Kingdom. This study investigated stress, coping, and psychological well-being among FHCP employed within inpatient settings. Methods.One hundred and thirty-five FHCP were recruited from four Medium Secure Units in the United Kingdom. A postal research pack was used to collect background information and measures of psychological well-being, burnout, occupational stress, work satisfaction, and coping.Results. The study found that a substantial proportion of FHCP experienced elevated levels of occupational stress and psychological distress, while moderate levels of burnout were demonstrated in terms of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. The findings confirmed that FHCP utilized a range of problemfocused (e.g., positive), emotion-focused (e.g., religious, negative, and supported), and palliative coping strategies (e.g., excessive smoking and drinking). Conclusions.The results appeared to support the commonly held assertion that forensic services are an inherently stressful and dangerous working environment, which can cause FHCP to experience marked levels of psychological distress, burnout, and occupational stress.

Coping, mental health, and subjective well-being among mental health staff working in secure forensic psychiatric settings: Results from a workplace health assessment.

“…There is a general lack of examination of coping skills as they may relate to staff mental health and subjective well-being in secure psychiatric services. In fact, only one study (Elliott & Daley, 2013) could be located examining both NHS forensic staff well-being and coping. Importantly, they reported forensic staff experienced high levels of work stress and moderate levels of burnout (e.g., depersonalization).…”

Chronic Pain in Irish Prison Officers: Profile and Predictors of Pain-Related Disability and Depression

“…The fact that the study did not look at the use of maladaptive pain‐coping strategies (alcohol and drug use) could be viewed as a limitation of the present research given previous findings of higher rates of alcohol abuse among prison officers and research suggesting that the use of behavioral maladaptive coping strategies have negative implications in terms of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization in the population . A further limitation of this study relates to its cross‐sectional nature and reliance on self‐report measures in data collection.…”

The role of emotion regulation, coping, self‐reflection and insight in staff interaction with patients with a diagnosis of personality disorder in forensic settings

“…In addition, distraction has been found to be an effective way of regulating intense emotions insofar as it succeeds in blocking the emotional processing of the situation (McRae et al, ; Sheppes et al, ). As working with forensic patients leads to higher stress and more negative emotions (Elliott & Daley, ; Tsirigotis, Gruszczyński, & Pęczkowski, ), high suppression of emotions could add to the effectiveness of distraction in blocking the emotional processing of the situation and, as such, lead to less hostile behaviour of staff towards their patients. On the other hand, when avoidance is low and the staff member is engaging with the emotional meaning of the situation, suppression is not a helpful strategy and high suppression may then lead to more hostile behaviour compared to low suppression.…”