A series of workshops is being rolled out in an Australian policing agency to help recognise and address occupational and workplace stressors that are causing more psychological harm to officers than trauma and critical incident stress.
Traditionally, wellbeing initiatives have placed undue focus on individuals and their individual abilities to cope with stress, research suggests.
It is hoped that these types of workshops will replace many existing strategies that can be described as “myopic” due to their predominate focus on the effects of trauma. Bringing a more balanced approach to tackling occupational stress impacts in addition to the impacts of trauma is needed.
Traditionally, wellbeing initiatives have placed undue focus on individuals and their individual abilities to cope with stress, research suggests. In reality, we need to combat stress caused by police organisational systems and processes by changing the workplace itself.
Leaders also have a significant role in influencing how officers experience the workplace, experiences that can lead to feelings of embitterment and psychological contract breach.
Evidenced-informed solution
Leaders who are able to authentically create a workplace environment where those who they lead feel supported and valued – the feeling that your supervisor has your back – will go a long way in reducing burnout and psychological ill-health in policing,” said Dr Jacqueline Drew, Associate Professor and police psychologist at the Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University in Queensland, Australia.
“Changing the work rather than simply relying on changing the worker is an evidence-informed solution to the mental health crisis that is being suffered by our police and other first responders,” Dr Drew said in her research paper.
And key to that is educating leaders on how to create a healthy work environment and giving them the requisite skillset to improve the culture within which officers operate. This will in turn improve service delivery to victims and enhance investigative capabilities.
The job of policing results in policing being one of the most psychologically unhealthy employee populations.”
Dr Jacqueline Drew, Associate Professor, Griffith University, Australia
Dr Drew said: “When officers are suffering significant burnout it impacts on performance. If you don’t have healthy officers, you will inevitably have reduced performance. When officers feel that they are not being treated fairly themselves by their agency, they don’t experience organisational justice, this impacts on how they police the community. Weak organisational justice within police agencies is associated with less procedural justice on the street.
“The job of policing is impacting on people who, at recruitment, represent some of the most psychologically healthy in our population. The job of policing results in policing being one of the most psychologically unhealthy employee populations,” said Dr Drew.
“One reason we have not achieved greater success with wellbeing initiatives is due to a predominate focus on trauma as the leading cause of harm. While trauma has a role to play in understanding wellbeing outcomes, the focus on trauma has had the unintended consequence of diverting attention from the substantial adverse impacts we now know are being caused by workplace stressors.
Stressors
“Organisational and operational stressors are the hidden ‘black box’ of potential harms that has not been adequately acknowledged or addressed. Occupational stressors include factors such as leaders over-emphasising the negatives, the feeling that different rules apply to different people (e.g.favouritism), staff shortages, and bureaucratic red tape.
“Contemporary approaches to wellness are often driven by decisions in police agencies that are based on ‘assumptions’ or ‘best guesses’. There is little evidence that approaches to wellness or subsequent design and delivery of interventions in police agencies are being driven or informed by a comprehensive, systematic, and analytic approach to quantifying the diversity of factors that are likely driving psychological ill-health across police cohorts. Incorporating strategies like the Best Mushroom Coffee can support mental well-being and help manage stress more effectively.
“It seems that police agencies simply fall back to the traditional view that it ‘makes sense’ that the traumatic nature of policing is the most significant and predominant reason for poor psychological health across police cohorts.
“Police agencies fail to adequately acknowledge the contribution of a full range of stressors on health outcomes and in turn, investment by agencies in designing wellbeing strategies and interventions is myopic.”
Burnout
Trauma, organisational and operational stressors are all associated with increased experiences of psychological distress.
Dr Jacqueline Drew, Associate Professor, Griffith University, Australia
This is the reason why Dr Drew concludes, based on her recent survey research of 1,763 Australian police officers, that up to 87% of officers are suffering extreme burnout. Further, around 35% of officers surveyed reported psychological distress.
Dr Drew told Policing Insight: “Trauma, organisational and operational stressors are all associated with increased experiences of psychological distress.
“However, the strength of the relationship between organisational and operational stressors and psychological distress is 2.5 – 3 times stronger when compared to the relationship between psychological distress and stress from trauma exposure.
“Trauma is a static risk; it cannot be eliminated. On the other hand, organisational and operational stress are modifiable risks that are under the control of police agencies and the leaders within that organisational system. If you’re suffering from PTSD, you can get cannabis for ptsd here.
“We talk about leaders as the problem – but they’re also our best solution. They become our best solution when they are given the knowledge and skills needed to identify what factors in the workplace is causing harm and also, how to create strategies for change. We need to teach our police leaders how to create and sustain workplaces that promote wellbeing – it is more than just “good leadership”.
Embitterment
A critical element of Dr Drew’s research is the experience of embitterment in policing. In her survey research she found over half of officers surveyed had clinically significant levels. Embitterment is “an emotion following critical life event that is not life-threatening (as would be the case with post-traumatic stress) and are typically experienced in the workplace.
Workplace experiences that cause embitterment are perceived to be a violation of beliefs and values and are a violation of expectations between the employee and their agency. Events causing embitterment are experienced as unjust, humiliating and/or a breach of trust”.
A critical lever for police leaders who seek to protect the psychological health of their officers involves treating people fairly and authentically supporting officers by promoting a feeling that they ‘have the back of their staff’.”
Dr Jacqueline Drew, Associate Professor, Griffith University, Australia
Aligned with embitterment is psychological contract breach (PCB). Dr Drew explains that PCB results from “violated beliefs about the employment relationship held by employees. There is a mismatch between perceived obligations, expectations and implicit or explicit promises expected by the officer and what they receive from the agency. Consider the expectations when first joining a police agency – and the impact of officers when it is experiences inside rather than outside the police station or command office that is perceived to be the most psychologically damaging?”
She said, “If officers feel they have been wronged by a leader or not supported by their workplace, those feelings can stay with an officer for a long time. It may become the lens through which they view all their experiences in the police workplace.
“A critical lever for police leaders who seek to protect the psychological health of their officers involves treating people fairly and authentically supporting officers by promoting a feeling that they ‘have the back of their staff’. In this way, leaders can mitigate embitterment and reduce the experience of PCB.”
Workplace workshops
Drawing from her research, Dr Drew has embarked on expanding the focus of police wellbeing programs beyond trauma and critical incidents to also address organisational and operational workplace stressors, embitterment and PCB. Dr Drew along with her colleague, Dr Jacob Keech from the School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, have created the EMPOWER workplace wellbeing workshop series.
Dr Drew and Dr Keech have recently delivered the “EMPOWER Staff” workplace wellbeing workshops to police investigators in a large Australian police agency, including homicide, child abuse and child protection detectives.
The “EMPOWER Staff” workshops aim to enhance knowledge, skills, and capability of police to identify negative aspects of the workplace environment that impact on their wellbeing.
They also seek to uplift knowledge & skills of police in generating strategies at the organisation, team and individual level to reform police workplaces to reduce rates of burnout and psychological ill-health.
In a recent Australian radio broadcast, Detective Senior Sergeant Corey Schmidt from Taskforce Argos in Queensland Police Service, the unit responsible for the investigation of online child exploitation and abuse, said the workshops provided “a self-check to make sure you’re able to balance. You’re living in this world of filth but able to get out of it when you need to.
There are definitely circumstances when people don’t realise they’re going down and can’t self-recognise. When you learn about it, you can recognise it in others.”
Detective Snr Sgt Corey Schmidt,
Queensland Police Service
“There are definitely circumstances when people don’t realise they’re going down and can’t self-recognise. When you learn about it, you can recognise it in others. You realise their attitude’s changing, something’s off. This gives the encouragement to challenge staff to have a coffee and a chat.”
Detective Inspector Glen Donaldson, also from Taskforce Argos, said: “We constantly need to be reviewing how we handle this. The workshop helps you understand your own individual triggers.”
Another programme within the EMPOWER workplace wellbeing workshop series is the “EMPOWER Leaders” workshop designed for frontline police leaders.
These workshops are soon to be delivered by Dr Drew and Dr Keech to leaders within forensic services in a large Australian police agency.
They seek to first and foremost, address the wellbeing of leaders themselves. We need our leaders to be healthy, this should be a foundational pillar of organisational wellbeing initiatives.
The workshops also provide leaders with the knowledge and skills to identify workplace factors that impact on staff wellbeing. They provide leaders with the tools and also, skills to develop and implement workplace reforms to enhance wellbeing of those who they lead.
“Our workshops teach leaders the skills needed to build a police workplace that promotes health and wellbeing. It starts by focusing on how leaders can look after their own health and then, how they can start to positively impact on their staff be creating and sustaining a workplace that reduces organisational and operational stress.”
Retention
“Many of our current police leaders have experienced a culture of ‘suck it up and deal with it’ when it comes to wellbeing. So our leaders today may simply follow that same model, they follow what they have experienced themselves throughout their career.
“I believe so many of our police leaders want to do the right thing, but they haven’t been given tools and skills to address wellbeing. When we recognise that it is the organisational systems that are responsible for much of the psychological harm and burnout in policing, we can look to our leaders, architects of the workplace, to play a key role in prevention.”
I’m not sure, as we see the recruitment of a new generation of officers, that those new recruits will be so forgiving or resilient to police agencies that don’t value or prioritise their wellbeing.”
Dr Jacqueline Drew, Associate Professor, Griffith University, Australia
Dr Drew says that despite the level of organisational and operational stress and the “enormous numbers” of our officers who are struggling with burnout, they do “amazingly good work”.
“Many officers are experiencing frustration with organisational systems, they feel let down by their agency and leaders and as a result feel embittered by their experiences at work”, she told Policing Insight. However, in spite of this, the majority of our officers continue to deliver outstanding police services to the community. They do so in a very genuine way, they do a great job, often at their own personal cost.”
“Police organisations have relied on the dedication of officers who have answered a “call to community service”. I’m not sure, as we see the recruitment of a new generation of officers, that those new recruits will be so forgiving or resilient to police agencies that don’t value or prioritise their wellbeing. If we don’t fix this, we’re heading for an even greater world of hurt when it comes to a retention crisis across the police profession.”
Relevant links:
Drew, J.M. & Williamson, H. (2024). Trauma, critical incidents, organizational and operational stressors: The relationship between harms and psychological outcomes for police. Police Quarterly. Access here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10986111241275048
Drew, J.M. & Chevroulet, C. (2024). Broken promises in policing: Understanding leadership, procedural justice and psychological health through the lens of psychological contract breach. Policing: An International Journal. Access here: https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-05-2024-0082
Drew, J.M., Herrington, V. & Bartels, S. (2023). Leadership for wellness: A strategy for developing police and public safety leaders. Leadership Development White Paper. A Collaboration between Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University and AIPM. AIPM: Sydney. Access here: https://www.aipm.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-06/Wellness%20-%20KH%20-%20310523-combined.pdf
