Police Psychology_W4.pptx

FPSY 3900 PSYCHOLOGY OF POLICING  From ideation to realization: exploring the problem of police officer suicide Dr. Ahmet Demirden INTRODUCTION  Suicide is a significant social problem.  In the United States: • The 10th leading cause of premature death, accounting for around 41,149 deaths per...

FPSY 3900 PSYCHOLOGY OF POLICING  From ideation to realization: exploring the problem of police officer suicide Dr. Ahmet Demirden INTRODUCTION  Suicide is a significant social problem.  In the United States: • The 10th leading cause of premature death, accounting for around 41,149 deaths per year INTRODUCTION  Suicide is also a significant concern for police organizations.  Are police officers at high risk of suicide? Are police at heightened risk of suicide? Epidemiological research  Policing is regarded as a highly stressful occupation  Police officers experience an average of three traumatic events for every 6 months of their police service  Police are at risk of experience traumatic events such as • • • • • violent confrontations and threats, Attending violent deaths, Reporting deaths to next of kin, Handling dead bodies, Making instantaneous life and death decisions, and • Dealing with abused children  Police officers have the significant social responsibility of upholding the law and keeping the peace;  Given the stressful nature of policing and heightened risk of experiencing trauma; • it has often been suggested they are at higher risk of suicide. Comparative examination?  What is the rate of suicide among police compared to the general population?  The findings are mixed! Variations in Findings: Methodological Limitations  Some police suicide rates have been calculated from inadequate sample sizes (e.g., 10),  Variation in the time periods considered • Single calendar year others decades A single homogenous group?  Policing involve a wide range of different works.  Some officers are regularly exposed to trauma while others rarely experience such situations  Most studies do not distinguish between roles Appropriate Comparison Group!  Given the heterogeneity of both groups it is too simplistic to compare police with the general population  The general population is likely to contain both employed and unemployed individuals Appropriate Comparison Group!  The general population also consists of a much wider age range  Healthy worker effect: The lower  relative mortality that is observed in occupational cohorts  Some argue that GP and PP comparisons are so misleading! Appropriate Comparison Group!  In studies with adequate controls for differences in the demographics between GP and PP  Suicide rates have been found similar  Police are at no greater risk of suicide compared with the general population  Other research has compared suicide rates between police and those in similar occupational groups such as firefighters  These studies have shown that other occupations such as the military or firefighting have similar if not greater risks of suicide than Caveat: DO NOT IGNORE HETEROGENEITY OF POLICE AND POLICE ROLES Demographics of police suicide Gender  Policing is a male-dominated occupation with the ratio of men to women in most Western police agencies being around 4:1.  Relative risk of suicide between men and women results have tended to suggest that women police officers are at greater risk • Higher risk of depression – a known correlate of suicide FEMALE POLICE OFFICERS  Some evidence has suggested that women police officers may be particularly sensitive to the social stressors of shift work,  Social isolation, and  How their work interacts with childcare and other family obligations, while this does not appear to be the case for male officers FEMALE POLICE OFFICERS  Working in a white male dominant culture that stresses masculinity, ideals of strength and toughness, and devalues women,  This creates negative consequences for women including exclusion and a lack of appropriate support Minority Police Officers  There have been few studies that have explored suicide among minorities within policing.  Minority status varies across different policing cohorts worldwide and on a rage of different criteria such as sexuality, race, or ethnicity Minority Police Officers  African American women in US police agencies have been found to have higher suicide rates than the general population  Hispanic police officers also had a higher suicide rate than the male Hispanic population in the United States Age and career stage  Research shows greatest levels of job dissatisfaction among mid-career workers in a range of different industries  Although job dissatisfaction alone may not be sufficient to account for suicide, there may be characteristics of policing that make such dissatisfaction particularly acute and intolerable for officers.  Suicides cluster 40-44 years age -15 and 19 years’ service Epidemiological research: summary  With adequate comparison groups, police are at no greater risk of suicide that GP.  Prescreening  Healthy Worker Effect  Expecting traumatic events Factors associated with police suicide  Two research paths • Studies of completed suicides and factors that were associated with these and • Consideration of suicidal ideation (thoughts about suicide and making plans for suicide).  The advantage of research on suicidal ideation is that individuals reporting this can give a richer description of the context and background to the thoughts. Work-related factors  These are factors associated with suicide and suicidal ideation that are associated with experiences at work  Management Styles: Police organizations are frequently hierarchical where authority is vested firmly in an individual’s rank • Unfair decision-making, arbitrary rules, poor consultation, shifting priorities Management Styles  Much research has found that police organizations are unresponsive ton the psychological needs of their staff, especially when staff are experiencing psychological difficulties  it is how police managers respond to experiences of trauma rather than the trauma itself that predicts symptoms of mental health problems. Work patterns  Policing can involve working long and sometimes erratic hours, shift work, long periods of repetitive work, and carrying out roles for which an individual has no or minimal training;  All of these aspects of police work have been shown to lead to stress among police officers Experiences of operational stressors  This refers to the stressors police officers experience as a result of day-to-day policing.  Negotiating the transitions from routine to traumatic events is likely to substantially elevate stress levels,  Relatedly, exposure to critical events raises the risk of substance abuse, PTSD, aggressive behavior, and suicidal ideation The culture of policing  Police officers are trained to be strong and resilient and to run toward danger rather than avoid it.  Toxic masculinity stressing strength and competence and avoiding showing signs of weakness  As a result, there is a culture within policing that implicitly and even explicitly discourages help seeking behavior and even making admissions of distress The culture of policing  There are several reasons why police officers avoid contacting mental health professionals. • A mistrust of mental health professionals, • Fear of losing their job, • Being overlooked for promotion, • Being transferred out of operational roles  More significant for Non-traditional officers Nonwork-related factor  This includes factors associated with suicide and suicidal ideation that result from experiences outside of police work.  Included here are family stresses related to close familial relationships and alcohol use by police officers as a stress coping strategy. Family problems  The interaction between police officers and their families can compound stressful effects of police work,  Janik and Kravitz (1994) found police officers who had a history of suicide attempts were much more likely to have a history of marital discord than others Alcohol use  Alcohol use has been part of policing culture for many years and is often regarded as a coping strategy  Excessive consumption of alcohol has been associated with an increased risk of suicidal ideation among those who use alcohol to cope with symptoms of traumatic stress Reducing the risk of police suicide  Suicidal ideation is exacerbated, and suicide risk increased as a result of a complex interaction between an interrelated collection of • personal vulnerabilities, • work and family problems, and • the culture of policing Reducing the risk of police suicide  Normalization of mental illness (workplace culture shift)  Use of high-profile individuals from within and outside policing  Educating staff to recognize signs of distress and mental illness  Peer support programs Improved Management and Leadership Practices  Organizationally just workplaces provide environments where workplace stress is reduced, cooperation is enhanced, and trust in managers is high Women in Police Culture  Given that women officers appear to be at heightened risk of suicide there would seem to be a need to review how police culture is implicated in this and  To challenge and change practices and procedures that are disadvantageous to women Intimate Partner Problems  The association between intimate partner problems and suicide needs consideration by police agencies.  Certainly, prevention approaches that are limited to the workplace may be too limited Coping Mechanisms  Alcohol has traditionally been used by police officers as a coping strategy.  There is a role for education of officers to allow them to understand how they are using alcohol and when that use is becoming dangerous.  Using alcohol to disguise or hide symptoms of suffering is a danger sign and officers should be made aware of this. Career Stages: Burn-out- Cynicism  Officers at mid-stages of their careers appear to be particularly at risk of suicide.  This suggests a need for intervention strategies that are targeted at mid-career officers.  In many jurisdictions, officers are given stress management training, but this may be a one-size-fits-all approach that is not targeted toward those who may be most vulnerable. Postvention Strategies  These are strategies designed to help individuals and the organization to cope in the aftermath of a suicide.  This is an important part of suicide prevention as following a suicide of a colleague, the entire agency is likely to be highly emotionally charged, with many traumatized by the events. Postvention Strategies  Postvention includes debriefings, sharing of information by managers and mental health professionals, and publication of methods for preventing future suicides  All too frequently agencies are silent, seemingly determined to hide or forget about a suicide as it “reflects badly” upon them. Postvention Strategies  Postvention is known to help colleagues, friends, and family deal with the aftermath of a suicide and allows organizations to begin to adjust to the loss and to grieve Final Remarks  There is a need for better controlled studies into the epidemiology of police suicide.  Explorations of the rates of suicide among minorities within policing and the impact of police culture upon such individuals are important and are lacking. Final Remarks  More research is needed into the factors associated with police officer suicide such as • The impact of shift work on suicide and • Why it is that mid-career individuals appear at heightened risk. Final Remarks  The association between police culture and suicide needs more detailed exploration, particularly the processes through which the culture is maintained and serves to limit disclosure of distress,  The high relative risk of suicide among police women is a significant concern Final Remarks  The design and proper evaluation of evidence-based suicide prevention strategies for policing in general is also important.  Police officer suicide is a highly traumatic and politically charged event.  Organizations are often under pressure to “do something”. Prevention and treatment  CISD is a group intervention technique, • officers involved in a critical incident, • Peer support personnel, are brought together and engage in a psychological debriefing • Led by a team of mental health professionals from crisis response teams MIDTERM - October 16th in the class at 11:10am - Chapters:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - 50 Multiple choice questions - 90 minutes