Citation

Watson L, Andrews L. Int. J. Stress Manag. 2017; 24(Suppl 1): e71.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/str0000071

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Police personnel exposed to potentially traumatic events as part of their operational duty may develop psychological problems. A number of UK Police Forces have made use of Trauma Risk Management (TRiM) in response. TRiM is a peer-support process that aims to support employees following trauma, reduce stigma, and encourage help-seeking. Research within military populations has provided preliminary support for the beneficial effects, and importantly no detrimental effects of using TRiM. However, to date there are only a small number of studies that have conducted research into the use of TRiM with police populations. A cross-sectional online questionnaire study compared personnel from 3 forces using TRiM (TRiM group, n = 693) with personnel from 2 forces without TRiM (non-TRiM group, n = 166). The questionnaire included measures of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology, barriers to help-seeking, self-stigma, and public-stigma. The TRiM group reported lower levels of PTSD symptoms, demonstrated less stigmatized views toward experiencing mental health difficulties, and perceived fewer barriers to help-seeking than did the non-TRiM group. Implications and future directions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)

Language: en