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Understanding the mental health and wellbeing needs of police officers and staff in Scotland

Police work can be stressful and demanding and can impact on employee wellbeing. This study aimed to understand mental health (MH) issues and risk factors for poor MH in officers and staff of the Police Service of Scotland (PSoS); and gather their ideas of workplace wellbeing interventions that are...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Demou, Evangelia, Hale, Hannah, Hunt, Kate
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7116541/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33408592
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2020.1772782
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author Demou, Evangelia
Hale, Hannah
Hunt, Kate
author_facet Demou, Evangelia
Hale, Hannah
Hunt, Kate
author_sort Demou, Evangelia
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description Police work can be stressful and demanding and can impact on employee wellbeing. This study aimed to understand mental health (MH) issues and risk factors for poor MH in officers and staff of the Police Service of Scotland (PSoS); and gather their ideas of workplace wellbeing interventions that are suitable for this workforce. Face-to-face/telephone interviews were conducted with 30 Superintendents and eight stakeholders, recruited throughout PSoS. Interview topics included: MH issues; health/health behaviours; employment; and potentially beneficial workplace interventions. A thematic analysis approach was adopted. High levels of occupational stress and anxiety, currently or in the past, were reported, as were experiences of PTSD, anxiety and depression. The main stressors reported were working hours, workload, culture, leadership and organisational change. Officers and staff recognised progress towards promoting and managing MH in the service but identified interventions, including training, counselling, and environmental workplace changes as needed to address mental health issues within police cultures.
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spelling pubmed-71165412021-01-05 Understanding the mental health and wellbeing needs of police officers and staff in Scotland Demou, Evangelia Hale, Hannah Hunt, Kate Police Pract Res Article Police work can be stressful and demanding and can impact on employee wellbeing. This study aimed to understand mental health (MH) issues and risk factors for poor MH in officers and staff of the Police Service of Scotland (PSoS); and gather their ideas of workplace wellbeing interventions that are suitable for this workforce. Face-to-face/telephone interviews were conducted with 30 Superintendents and eight stakeholders, recruited throughout PSoS. Interview topics included: MH issues; health/health behaviours; employment; and potentially beneficial workplace interventions. A thematic analysis approach was adopted. High levels of occupational stress and anxiety, currently or in the past, were reported, as were experiences of PTSD, anxiety and depression. The main stressors reported were working hours, workload, culture, leadership and organisational change. Officers and staff recognised progress towards promoting and managing MH in the service but identified interventions, including training, counselling, and environmental workplace changes as needed to address mental health issues within police cultures. 2020 2020-06-09 /pmc/articles/PMC7116541/ /pubmed/33408592 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2020.1772782 Text en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Article
Demou, Evangelia
Hale, Hannah
Hunt, Kate
Understanding the mental health and wellbeing needs of police officers and staff in Scotland
title Understanding the mental health and wellbeing needs of police officers and staff in Scotland
title_full Understanding the mental health and wellbeing needs of police officers and staff in Scotland
title_fullStr Understanding the mental health and wellbeing needs of police officers and staff in Scotland
title_full_unstemmed Understanding the mental health and wellbeing needs of police officers and staff in Scotland
title_short Understanding the mental health and wellbeing needs of police officers and staff in Scotland
title_sort understanding the mental health and wellbeing needs of police officers and staff in scotland
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7116541/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33408592
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2020.1772782
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