Critical Challenges to Police Officer Wellness

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooke McQuerrey Tuttle ◽  
Daniel M. Blumberg ◽  
Konstantinos Papazoglou
Keyword(s):  
Stress Management ◽  
Compassion Fatigue ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Emotional Regulation ◽  
Critical Incident ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Moral Injury ◽  
Community Relations ◽  
Police Stress ◽  
Emotional Instability

Police officers face unique challenges in the line of duty that threaten their health and well-being. Officers experience organizational, operational, community-related, and personal stressors ranging from shift work and critical incident response to public pressures related to police-community relations and social media. Exposure to police stress and trauma presents external challenges to wellness which makes officers vulnerable to experiencing compassion fatigue, moral injury, and burnout. Compassion fatigue, resulting from caring for those who suffer, is associated with feelings of anger, anxiety, guilt, hopelessness, and powerlessness. Other symptoms may include emotional instability, diminished self-esteem, self-harm, inability to concentrate, hypervigilance, disorientation, rigidity, apathy, perfectionism, and preoccupation to trauma. Furthermore, moral injury occurs when officers witness or take part in acts that violate their deeply held moral beliefs, which in turn carries implications for psychological and spiritual well-being. The interconnectedness of challenges to officer wellness are detrimental to physical, cognitive, emotional, spiritual, behavioral, and social health. Negative health outcomes include risk for sleep disorders, cardiovascular disease, destructive coping, posttraumatic stress disorder, and suicide. Implications from prior research with police, other frontline professionals, veterans, and military personnel have led to a number of interventions and techniques that can potentially promote wellness and effective stress management for police officers. Training related to stress management and wellness promotion have been found to significantly improve officers’ performance in the line of duty and overall health. This includes viewing wellness as a perishable skill, requiring ongoing practice, updated training, and numerous outside resources (e.g., psychological services, posttrauma intervention, peer support, and chaplaincy). Stress management techniques, gratitude and appreciation letters, mindfulness, and other community-oriented programs are some examples of effective strategies to promote the health of the law enforcement community. Furthermore, compassion satisfaction, emotional intelligence, and emotional regulation play a significant role in helping officers maintain stability in their personal and professional lives while capably serving their communities.

Disaster mental health: A critical incident stress management program (CISM) to mitigate compassion fatigue

2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Norma S.C. Jones, DSW ◽  
Kamilah Majied, PhD
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Stress Management ◽  
Compassion Fatigue ◽  
Peer Support ◽  
Critical Incident ◽  
Management Program ◽  
Critical Incident Stress Management ◽  
Critical Incident Stress ◽  
Disaster Workers ◽  
Stress Management Program

This article presents a critical incident stress management program (CISMP) that is designed to anticipate and mitigate the emotional impact of external and internal critical incidents upon individuals and groups who deliver disaster recovery services. This comprehensive program provides for immediate and sustained responses to assist disaster workers in effectively minimizing the emotional detriment of stressful incidents, resulting from interactions with disaster victims. Disaster workers have the potential to experience compassion fatigue as they listen to the disaster survivors’ stories of pain and losses, and work long work hours over extended work periods. The program is a structured, peer-driven, clinician-guided, and supported process designed to provide interventions to address disaster-related mental health issues. Emphasis is placed on individual peer support for immediate action, and specialized individual and group support, assessment, and referral is provided by a stress management clinician. Peer partners participate in a training program, which includes: (1) an overview of stress assessment and management; (2) critical/intervention orientation; (3) identification and utilization of peer support techniques; (4) event preplanning, event briefings, defusings, and debriefings; (5) protocol for responding to an incident; and (6) basic information on workplace violence.

Treating Bruised Badges

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Lucas Rubim ◽  
Felipe Rubim ◽  
Konstantinos Papazoglou ◽  
Daniel M. Blumberg
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Problems ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Moral Distress ◽  
Behavioral Therapy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Moral Injury ◽  
Job Dissatisfaction ◽  
Psychological Interventions ◽  
Emotional Difficulties ◽  
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy

Policing may lead officers to physical, psychological, and emotional distress. Nonetheless, there is an additional, albeit less studied, threat to officers' well-being. Moral risks, an umbrella term encompassing two interrelated moral struggles—moral distress and moral injury—exacerbate officers' emotional difficulties, spiritual distress, and job dissatisfaction, as well as increase the likelihood of officer misconduct. However, there are psychological interventions that help to minimize the intensity of the psychological and behavioral problems associated with these moral risks and facilitate officers' recovery from these difficulties. This chapter examines the utilization of cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, and other techniques to treat the moral suffering of law enforcement personnel. It provides practical suggestions for using the strategies of these modalities to increase police officers' well-being.

Why Critical Incident Stress Management Teams Matter in Primary Care

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-14
Author(s):  
Kira Batist ◽  
Alissa Mallow
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Stress Management ◽  
Compassion Fatigue ◽  
Critical Incident ◽  
Vicarious Traumatization ◽  
Emergency Rooms ◽  
Critical Incident Stress Management ◽  
Critical Incident Stress ◽  
Primary Care Clinics ◽  
Team Model

ObjectiveCritical incident stress management (CISM) teams can be adapted in urban primary care clinics to address and process traumatic events in primary care. A guide for implementing the CISM team model within this setting is delineated.MethodsReview of existing literature and guide to implementation of CISM team in primary care.ResultsRespondents reported the team validated their reactions to the critical incident and were grateful for CISM presence.ConclusionDespite indications that vicarious traumatization, burnout, and compassion fatigue are rising (Bodenheimer & Sinsky, 2014; Coles et al., 2013; Woolhouse et al., 2012), there is little information about efforts to address this. Operating and emergency rooms and intensive care units utilize CISM (Maloney 2012; Powers, 2015); however, it's overlooked in primary care (Blacklock, 2012; Naish et al., 2002).

Attitudinal Differences Between Police Constables and Their Supervisors

1995 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 326-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEPHEN B. PERROTT ◽  
DONALD M. TAYLOR
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Perceived Stress ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
Community Relations ◽  
Attitudinal Differences ◽  
Police Attitudes ◽  
Occupational Role ◽  
Police Community Relations

Rank may affect police attitudes because the occupational role and day-to-day experiences of police constables, their direct supervisors, and police managers vary considerably. This study compared a sample of constables ( n = 123) and a sample of their immediate supervisors ( n = 36) on measures of authoritarianism, perceived stress, job satisfactioin, and social nearness to several clearly defined groups. Although constables and their supervisors did not differ on perceived stress, supervisors reported significantly higher levels of authoritarianism, job satisfaction, and social nearness to certain groups. Lower levels of social nearness in the constable sample accompanied by lower levels of authoritarianism suggest that feelings of social nearness may result from situational factors. Explanations for these differences are proposed, and implications for the psychological well-being of police officers and for police-community relations are discussed.

Guilty Pleasure No More

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 126-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin L. Nabi ◽  
Debora Pérez Torres ◽  
Abby Prestin
Keyword(s):  
Stress Management ◽  
Perceived Stress ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Breast Cancer Patients ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
Individual Difference Variables ◽  
Relative Value ◽  
Management Techniques ◽  
Managing Stress

Abstract. Despite the substantial attention paid to stress management in the extant coping literature, media use has been surprisingly overlooked as a strategy worthy of close examination. Although media scholars have suggested media use may be driven by a need to relax, related research has been sporadic and, until recently, disconnected from the larger conversation about stress management. The present research aimed to determine the relative value of media use within the broader range of coping strategies. Based on surveys of both students and breast cancer patients, media use emerged as one of the most frequently selected strategies for managing stress across a range of personality and individual difference variables. Further, heavier television consumers and those with higher perceived stress were also more likely to use media for coping purposes. Finally, those who choose media for stress management reported it to be an effective tool, although perhaps not as effective as other popular strategies. This research not only documents the centrality of media use in the corpus of stress management techniques, thus highlighting the value of academic inquiry into media-based coping, but it also offers evidence supporting the positive role media use can play in promoting psychological well-being.

Moral Disability, Moral Injury, and the Flight from Vulnerability

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia L. Warren
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Moral Injury ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Moral Reflection ◽  
Moral Value ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Moral Conviction ◽  
Moral Importance

This chapter explores the concept of moral disability, identifying two types. The first type involves disabling conditions that distort one’s process of moral reflection. Examples include the incapacity to consider the long-term future, to feel empathy for others, and to be honest with oneself. A noteworthy example of self-deception is systematically denying one’s own—and humanity’s—vulnerability to the power of others, to accidents, and to having one’s well-being linked to that of others and the eco-system. Acknowledging vulnerability often requires a new sense of self. The second type includes incapacities directly resulting from ‘moral injury’—debilitating, self-inflicted harms when one violates a deeply held moral conviction, even if trying to remain true to another moral value. Examining moral disabilities highlights the moral importance of self-identity. More progress may be made on controversial issues if we discuss who we are, how we connect, and how we can heal.

A Model for a Statewide Critical Incident Stress (CIS) Debriefing Program for Emergency Services Personnel

1997 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith W. Neely ◽  
William J. Spitzer
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Psychological Functioning ◽  
Critical Incident ◽  
Emergency Services ◽  
Fire Department ◽  
Critical Incident Stress ◽  
Emergency Services Personnel ◽  
Response Team

AbstractPurpose:Emergency services personnel are highly vulnerable to acute and cumulative critical incident stress (CIS) that can manifest as anger, guilt, depression, and impaired decision-making, and, in certain instances, job loss. Interventions designed to identify such distress and restore psychological functioning becomes imperative.Methods:A statewide debriefing team was formed in 1988 through a collaborative effort between an academic department of emergency medicine and a social work department of a teaching hospital, and a metropolitan area fire department and ambulance service. Using an existing CIS debriefing model, 84 pre-screened, mental health professionals and emergency services personnel were provided with 16 hours of training and were grouped into regional teams.Debriefing requests are received through a central number answered by a communicator in a 24-hour communications center located within the emergency department. Debriefings are conducted 48–72 hours after the event for specific types of incidents. Follow-up telephone calls are made by the debriefing team leader two to three weeks following a debriefing. The teams rely on donations to pay for travel and meals.Results:One hundred sixty-eight debriefings were conducted during the first four years. Rural agencies accounted for 116 (69%) requests. During this period, 1,514 individuals were debriefed: 744 (49%) firefighters, 460 (30%) EMTs, and 310 (21%) police officers, dispatchers, and other responders. Deaths of children, extraordinary events, and incidents involving victims known to the responders (35%, 14%, and 14% respectively) were the most common reasons for requesting debriefings. Feedback was received from 48 (28%) of the agencies that requested the debriefing. All of those who responded felt that the debriefing had a beneficial effect on its personnel. Specific individuals identified by agency representatives as having the greatest difficulty were observed to be returned to their pre-incident state.Conclusion:CIS debriefings are judged as beneficial. A statewide response team is an effective way to provide these services at no cost to agencies.

scholarly journals From Conflict to Socio-Emotional Well-Being. Application of the GIAM Model through Traditional Sporting Games

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7263
Author(s):  
Aaron Rillo-Albert ◽  
Unai Sáez de Sáez de Ocáriz ◽  
Antoni Costes ◽  
Pere Lavega-Burgués
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Emotional Regulation ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Well Being ◽  
School Students ◽  
Motor Action ◽  
Pedagogical Intervention ◽  
Validated Questionnaires ◽  
Associative Strategy

The education of pleasant interpersonal relationships is one of the great challenges of modern physical education. Learning to live together sustainably is also learning to transform conflicts and the negative emotions elicited by them. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the GIAM pedagogical model (of the Motor Action Research Group) through cooperation-opposition traditional sporting games with competition in the presence of motor conflicts (conflict transformation; relational well-being) and on emotional regulation (management of negative emotions; emotional well-being). Empirical research was carried out using an associative strategy (explanatory study) involving 222 secondary school students (Mage = 14.86; SD = 0.65). A seven-session pedagogical intervention was carried out based on a championship using the Marro (Prisoner’s Bar) game. The students answered two validated questionnaires of socio-emotional well-being, the Games and Emotions Scale (GES-II) and the Motor Conflict Questionnaire (MCQ), at three phases during the experience (beginning, middle, and end). The findings showed that, through the GIAM model, motor conflicts and the intensity of negative emotions were reduced. It was found that conflicts and negative emotions are part of the same phenomenon and that through an appropriate pedagogical program it is possible to turn them into experiences of socio-emotional well-being.

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