Police staff and mental health: Barriers and recommendations for improving help-seeking

Police staff and mental health: Barriers and recommendations for improving help-seeking

Police Practice and Research

This article looks at finding ways to increase use of psychological support for police staff and officers by identifying the barriers to seeking treatment and strategies to improving access to treatment. The authors identify three main barriers: stigma, worries about confidentiality, and occupation-specific experiences with people in the community who present in mental distress. The article looks at evidence from a number of programs that have been implemented to reduce barriers to seeking treatment by normalising mental health concerns. Peer support programs are looked at, where peers are trained to provide informal mental health care to other peers, encouraging shared experiences and contextually sensitive conversations over formal sessions.

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