Citation

Grassi C, Del Casale A, Ferracuti S, Cucè P, Santorsa R, Pelliccione A, Marotta G, Tavella G, Tatarelli R, Girardi P, Rapinesi C, Kotzalidis GD, Pompili M. Ann. Ist. Super. Sanita 2018; 54(2): 82-89.

Affiliation

Facoltà di Medicina e Psicologia, Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Salute Mentale e Organi Di Senso - NESMOS, Sapienza Università di Roma; UOC Psichiatria, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Sant'Andrea, Rome, Italy.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Istituto superiore di sanit)

DOI

10.4415/ANN_18_02_02

PMID

29916411

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Suicide in international police is 2-3-fold that of the general population. Risk factors include suicidal ideation, diagnosis of mood or post-traumatic stress disorders, family/psychological problems, suffered abuse, alcohol use, service suspension, and stigma. A false stigma-related myth is to believe that suicide does not cause concern within military settings.

METHODS: We administered post-training to 6103 Italian Police workers a 30-item questionnaire to assess the perception of suicidal phenomena. We conducted descriptive statistics, principal component analysis, and analyses of variance of data.

RESULTS: We identified seven factors, i.e., health and environmental risk factors; need for new preventive interventions; emotional reaction to suicide; negation, indifference and minimization; utility of current preventive interventions; risk related to personal factors; intervention difficulties.

CONCLUSIONS: The questionnaire showed content validity and consistency in investigating perceptions about suicide in the State Police. Data synthesis showed a mature approach and appropriate perception of the suicide problem on behalf of Italian State Police workers.

Language: en