Improving Officer Well-being to Help Create Healthy Communities: Wellness Implications for Public Health
Abstract
Background: The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) list four pillars of officer wellness: mental health, fitness, resilience, and nutrition. A National Taskforce on officer safety and wellness determined that a key element of healthy communities is the well-being of its officers. Training programs in GA help officers monitor wellness components during basic training in hopes that well-being and mindfulness regulation will become a lifetime practice among these first responders. Methods: Cadets (n=73) from three cohorts participated in an 11-week Georgia Regional Police Office of Standard and Training (POST) BLETC - Basic Law Enforcement Training Course. Cadets monitored wellness variables daily: Sleep Time and Quality, Soreness, Joint Pain, Hydration, Nutrition, Stress, and Energy scores via a fitness App on their personal phones. Time series decomposition analyses checked for weekly variability and linear mixed models determined the effect of time on wellness variables. Results: Majority of the cadets (79.45%) were male evenly distributed by cohorts (n=26, 24, and 23; respectively). Monday reported the worst weekly scores for Sleep Time and Quality of the previous night and highest Stress levels. Soreness and Joint Problems showed the best scores on Monday but deteriorated during the week. Energy level was the lowest on Mondays and Thursdays but improved during the weekend. Weekly stress score decreased by 0.12 units on average for each passing week of the program (p=0.0004). Waist-to-height ratio demonstrated a considerable negative effect, indicative of increased fitness, though not statistically significant. Conclusion: Considerations should be given when programming to adjust for participant’s fluctuation in wellness variables. Cadets seem to be at suboptimal levels on Mondays; training goals could center on stability or cardiovascular activity. Heightened awareness of cadet’s mental and physical well-being may assist with improved officer mindfulness and self-regulation which are key elements in positive community policing.
Keywords
mental health, fitness, officer well-being, stress, nutrition
Improving Officer Well-being to Help Create Healthy Communities: Wellness Implications for Public Health
Background: The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) list four pillars of officer wellness: mental health, fitness, resilience, and nutrition. A National Taskforce on officer safety and wellness determined that a key element of healthy communities is the well-being of its officers. Training programs in GA help officers monitor wellness components during basic training in hopes that well-being and mindfulness regulation will become a lifetime practice among these first responders. Methods: Cadets (n=73) from three cohorts participated in an 11-week Georgia Regional Police Office of Standard and Training (POST) BLETC - Basic Law Enforcement Training Course. Cadets monitored wellness variables daily: Sleep Time and Quality, Soreness, Joint Pain, Hydration, Nutrition, Stress, and Energy scores via a fitness App on their personal phones. Time series decomposition analyses checked for weekly variability and linear mixed models determined the effect of time on wellness variables. Results: Majority of the cadets (79.45%) were male evenly distributed by cohorts (n=26, 24, and 23; respectively). Monday reported the worst weekly scores for Sleep Time and Quality of the previous night and highest Stress levels. Soreness and Joint Problems showed the best scores on Monday but deteriorated during the week. Energy level was the lowest on Mondays and Thursdays but improved during the weekend. Weekly stress score decreased by 0.12 units on average for each passing week of the program (p=0.0004). Waist-to-height ratio demonstrated a considerable negative effect, indicative of increased fitness, though not statistically significant. Conclusion: Considerations should be given when programming to adjust for participant’s fluctuation in wellness variables. Cadets seem to be at suboptimal levels on Mondays; training goals could center on stability or cardiovascular activity. Heightened awareness of cadet’s mental and physical well-being may assist with improved officer mindfulness and self-regulation which are key elements in positive community policing.
