Common mental disorders and their risk factors among Belgian police officers: preliminary results of a widely distributed online survey

• In Event: POL Panel 19. Police officers' lived experiences and their impact

Abstract

Police officers are at risk of developing psychological distress mainly facing stressful events (Jetelina et al., 2020). This distress can be expressed through several clinical states: Common Mental Disorders (CMD) (e.g. depressive, anxiety, stress disorders, etc.) (Iversen et al., 2008). To the authors’ knowledge, although rates of CMDs among police officers (PO) are relatively well established over their careers’ course, no studies assess them in an integrative, comorbid, or even interactional pattern (Houdmont & Randall, 2016; Syed et al., 2020). Moreover, CMDs in the workplace, particularly among PO, result from a multifactorial and interactional etiology between three types of stress factors, acute or chronic: organisational, operational, and individual (Dougall & Baum, 2012). Whereas there are numerous studies on risk factors relating to post-traumatic stress or burnout, literature remains scarce on depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, or substance abuse in PO (Sherwood et al., 2019; Syed et al., 2020). Current study investigates CMDs and their risk factors among a sample of Belgian PO through a widely distributed online survey in several police departments. CMDs assessed are post-traumatic stress (PCL-5; Weathers et al., 2013), burnout (MBI-GS; Maslach et al., 1996), depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation (GHQ-28; Goldberg & Williams, 1988) and substance abuse (ASSIST; Word Health Organisation, 2010). As well, the protocol includes assessment of organisational, operational (PSQ; McCreary & Thompson, 2006) and individual (through socio-demographic data, coping strategies [Brief-COPE; Carver, 1997] and resilient traits [CD-RISC; Campbell-Sills & Stein, 2007]) factors. We will compute descriptive analyses to establish prevalence and comorbidities of CMDs as well as interactions between CMDs based on correlations. In addition, we will explore the predictive effects of the three risk factors’ types on each CMDs with hierarchized regression analyses. The results will be discussed considering the literature.

Authors

• Emilie Telle, University of Mons

• Kelly Quertinmont, University of Mons

• Thierry Pham, University of Mons

• Audrey Vicenzutto, University of Mons