Stress management and health promotion intervention program for police forces

Abstract

Police are exposed to considerable amounts of stress while undertaking their work; confronting not only a plethora of stress factors common to the field of work, but also frequently experienced violence, aggression, environmental stressors and traumatic events, thus leading to poor physical and mental health. This study aims to expand evidence on the role of stress management in police forces. The study concerns a randomized control trial in a sample of police officers ( N = 54) randomly separated into intervention and control groups. The intervention group ( N = 27) underwent Pythagorean Self-Awareness Intervention (PSAI), a novel 8-week non-pharmaceutical self-referring intervention, whereas the control group completed self-reported questionnaires that were used pre- and post-intervention in both groups. The majority of participants were males in their mid-30s, with tertiary education, married, and had been working in police forces for more than a decade; more than half were shift workers. Statistical analyses revealed beneficial changes in the intervention group for the variables anger in, negative affect, cognitive speed and verbal memory compared with the control group. We aspire to the introduction of PSAI as a method that have beneficial effects on police stress, cognitive amelioration and management of negative feelings and anger.

Police officers’ work–life balance, job satisfaction and quality of life: longitudinal effects after changing the shift schedule

“…Research findings suggest that educational-based family-friendly programmes should be established in PS 60. Moreover, several health promotion programmes for police forces have been evaluated recently 61–63. At least in online trainings, it seems to be harder to change mental health and attitudes toward suicide compared with knowledge and competence, as an intervention study among German-speaking police officers implies 64.…”

“…60 Moreover, several health promotion programmes for police forces have been evaluated recently. [61][62][63] At least in online trainings, it seems to be harder to change mental health and attitudes toward suicide compared with knowledge and competence, as an intervention study among German-speaking police officers implies. 64 In this vein, mindfulness-based health promotion was recently shown to be feasible and efficacious to improve quality of life among Brazilian officers.…”

Developments in UK police wellbeing: A review of blue light wellbeing frameworks

“…Police officers are regularly exposed to threats to their, or others’, physical safety from dealing with routine criminal activity, in addition to risks which come from more extraordinary or extreme events such as natural disasters (Kerswell et al, 2019; Regehr et al, 2019). Persistent exposure to ‘violence, aggression, environmental stressors and traumatic events’ has resulted in poor physical and mental health in the police force (Liakopoulou et al, 2020: 1). Specific and pronounced concerns surrounding psychological work injuries such as PTSD, depression, anxiety and suicide have been evidenced recently across a variety of geographical contexts (see Clements et al, 2020; Foley and Massey, 2019; Mona et al, 2019; Sheard et al, 2019; Soomro and Yanos, 2019).…”

Transformational Excellence: A Synthesis of Lean and Stress Management Intervention Research with Evidence-Based Actionable Guidelines

“…The preponderance of the recent research of SMI research has focused on assessing numerous secondary SMI strategies within smaller, specialized stakeholder groups for resilience empowerment and stress prevention. For instance, recent investigations and systematic literature reviews of SMI strategies have focused on the nurse population (see e.g., Chesak et al, 2019;Delaney et al, 2016;Hersch et al, 2016;Velana & Rinkenauer, 2021), law enforcement (see e.g., Liakopoulou et al, 2020;Nwokeoma et al, 2019;Patterson et al, 2014), military personnel (see e.g., Harden et al, 2021;Pallavicini et al, 2016), mining and oil and gas extraction (see e.g., Asare et al, 2021), cancer patients (see e.g., Buneviciene et al, 2021;Chang et al, 2021;Rush & Sharma, 2017), and student populations (see e.g., Kumar & Suresh, 2022), among other specialized groups. Members of these groups have traditionally been recognized as higherrisk stakeholders.…”