Easterbrook Bethany, Ricciardelli Rosemary, Sanger Brahm D, Mitchell Meghan M, McKinnon Margaret C, Carleton R Nicholas
Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
Homewood Research Institute, Guelph, ON, Canada.
Front Psychiatry. 2022 Aug 12;13:874997. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.874997. eCollection 2022.
Researchers and practitioners have begun to recognize and empirically examine the mental health challenges facing public safety personnel (PSP). Empirical results from longitudinal data collection among PSP remains extremely scant, particularly for institutional correctional workers. We designed the current study to assess the mental health of Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) correctional officer recruits (CORs) across time to help clarify potential challenges to or protective factors for mental health across correctional officer (CO) careers.
The current study uses data from the Canadian Correctional Workers' Wellbeing, Organizations, Roles, and Knowledge (CCWORK) study. The study uses a longitudinal design with self-report surveys administered online prior to CORs beginning the CSC Correctional Training Program. Initial baseline survey data were used to assess demographic information and mental health symptoms endorsed at the outset of the training program.
Participating CORs ( = 265; 40% female; age = 32.8, SD = 9.1) began training between August 2018 and July 2021. Participants were less likely to screen positive for one or more current mental health disorders (i.e., 4.9%) than previously published rates for serving correctional officers (i.e., 54.6%), including reporting lower rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (i.e., 2.4 vs. 29.1%) and major depressive disorder (i.e., 1.9 vs. 31.1%).
CONCLUSION/IMPACT: Prevalence of positive screens for current mental health disorders in CORs appears lower than for the general population, and significantly lower than for serving correctional officers. The current results suggest an important causal relationship may exist between correctional work and detrimental mental health outcomes. Maintaining the mental health of correctional officers may require institutionally-supported proactive and responsive multimodal activities.
研究人员和从业者已开始认识到公共安全人员（PSP）面临的心理健康挑战，并对其进行实证研究。PSP纵向数据收集的实证结果仍然极为匮乏，尤其是对于机构惩教人员而言。我们设计了本研究，以评估加拿大惩教服务局（CSC）惩教官员新兵（COR）随时间推移的心理健康状况，以帮助阐明惩教官员（CO）职业生涯中心理健康面临的潜在挑战或保护因素。
本研究使用了加拿大惩教工作者福祉、组织、角色和知识（CCWORK）研究的数据。该研究采用纵向设计，在COR开始CSC惩教培训计划之前通过在线方式进行自我报告调查。初始基线调查数据用于评估培训计划开始时的人口统计学信息和认可的心理健康症状。
参与研究的COR（n = 265；40%为女性；年龄 = 32.8，标准差 = 9.1）于2018年8月至2021年7月开始培训。与之前公布的在职惩教官员的患病率（即54.6%）相比，参与者筛查出一种或多种当前心理健康障碍呈阳性的可能性较小（即4.9%），包括创伤后应激障碍（即2.4%对29.1%）和重度抑郁症（即1.9%对31.1%）的报告率较低。
结论/影响：COR中当前心理健康障碍阳性筛查的患病率似乎低于普通人群，且显著低于在职惩教官员。目前的结果表明，惩教工作与有害心理健康结果之间可能存在重要的因果关系。维持惩教官员的心理健康可能需要机构支持的积极主动和反应性的多模式活动。
