Publications

Anxiety sensitivity, fear of negative evaluation, illness and injury sensitivity, intolerance of uncertainty, and pain anxiety are all risk factors for mental health challenges, whereas resilience can protect against the development of mental health challenges. Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have more mental health challenges than the general population, but before starting their service score lower on those risk factors, and higher on resilience, than young adults in the general population. To help explain the seemingly contradictory evidence, the current study was designed to assess for changes in risk and resilience factors during the first three years of active service. Participants’ scores were assessed for changes over time (i.e., across years of service) and were compared to scores from young adult general population norms. The current results indicate that RCMP are at higher risk for mental health challenges after three years of service than at the end of the CTP, but RCMP continue to be at relatively lower risk compared to young adults in the general population. The results further implicate their service as causing injuries.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are regularly exposed to potentially psychologically traumatic events (PPTEs), which include direct (e.g., happened to me) or indirect (e.g., part of my job) exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence. Exposures to PPTEs and other occupational stressors have been associated with several posttraumatic stress injuries (PTSIs), including but not limited to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), panic disorder (PD), alcohol use disorder (AUD), and major depressive disorder (MDD). To date, there have been no studies exclusively examining changes in mental health from completion of training to one year of police service. Based on newly published data from the RCMP Longitudinal PTSD Study, RCMP members after the first year of service report higher symptom severity (all ds=.09 to .53, all ps<.05) and positive screens (all Zs=.05 to 3.32, all ps<.001) for PTSD, MDD, and SAD, compared to pre-deployment. 15.0% of the current sample also screened positive for one or more probable mental health disorders after the first year of service, compared to 7.2% at pre-deployment. The current results bolster notions that PTSI prevalence among experienced RCMP is related to service experiences, rather than failures to screen out recruits who have pre-existing mental health challenges. The current results also suggest that mental health challenges can begin to develop as early as the first year of service, and that all RCMP need evidence-based strategies to protect their mental health.

Professions who experience frequent exposures to potentially psychologically traumatic events (PPTEs; e.g., fire or explosion, natural disaster, sexual assault), such as Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), report more symptoms of various posttraumatic stress injuries (PTSIs), including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), major depressive disorder (MDD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), and correlates like alcohol use disorder (AUD). Chronic exposures to stressors such as PPTEs have also been associated with an increased risk of experiencing a major adverse cardiac event (MACE). To date, few studies have demonstrably evidenced affiliations among mental health disorder symptoms and functional changes in cardiac contractility, let alone longitudinal associations among high-stress and at-risk occupational samples. The current research draws on data from the larger, 10-year RCMP Study, a part of a Federal Framework on PTSD. Participants were RCMP members (n=81; 71.6% male) finishing the Cadet Training Program and completing assessments including: web-delivered surveys assessing current and mental health disorder symptoms, and ambulatory monitoring of cardiac function via seismocardiography (SCG). The current study evidenced directionally and theoretically consistent relationships among changes in mental health disorder symptoms and measures of cardiac function; specifically, increases in mental health disorder symptoms were associated with problematic changes in cardiac function. The results provide a strong rationale for integrating cardiac rehabilitation exercise guidelines into occupational fitness and wellness programs to potentially mitigate the impact of occupational stressors including repeated PPTE exposures on cardiac function.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Cadets complete the Cadet training program (CTP) which provides the necessary skills and training for policing. Little has been known about the impact of the CTP on the personalities of Cadets. The current study analyzed personality factors and facets among Cadets before and after the CTP. The current study also compared Cadet’s personalities following the CTP to the general population. The results indicated small differences among Cadets in some personality factors and facets from starting to completing the CTP. Cadets completing the CTP maintained higher Honesty-Humility, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness, as well as lower Emotionality and Openness to Experience, than the general population. The different personality factors and facets have been evidenced as ideal for contemporary policing and associated with reduced risk for mental health disorders. The current results provide further insights about the potential impact the CTP has on key areas of Cadets’ personalities throughout the training process.

RCMP are frequently exposed to potentially psychologically traumatic events (PPTEs) while on duty, but it is less clear if RCMP cadets are exposed to PPTEs during the 26-week Cadet Training Program (CTP). Determining when career-related PPTE exposures begin to accumulate can help to inform additional opportunities to increase the safety and well-being of cadets during the CTP and while serving. The current study provides information on the types of PPTEs experienced by cadets during training and examines for associations with mental health disorder symptoms. Participants were RCMP cadets from the larger RCMP Longitudinal PTSD study who self-reported PPTEs and mental health symptoms during the CTP. Most participants reported no PPTE exposures (n = 374, 83.3%) during the CTP. Cadets who did report PPTE exposures during the CTP, most frequently reported exposure to serious transportation accidents, physical assault, and sudden accidental death. The total number of PPTE types reported during the CTP was associated with increased risk for any mental health disorders. The current results indicate that career-related PPTE exposures can start to accumulate as early as training and may be associated with mental health disorder symptoms. Early evidence-based supports, strategies and interventions are necessary to support the mental health and safety of cadets during training and onwards throughout their careers.

Public safety personnel (PSP) are frequently exposed to potentially psychologically traumatic events (PPTEs) during their work, but there is less understanding regarding adverse experiences that PSP may have faced before entering the profession. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are acknowledged to contribute to negative, long-lasting outcomes, and include child maltreatment, household challenges, and peer victimization. ACEs may hinder PSP resilience processes for coping with and overcoming PPTEs, limiting their ability to function and adapt to their work requirements. The current study was designed to understand how specific ACEs, including child maltreatment, household challenges, peer victimization, and their combination, may impact resilience among Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Cadets starting their training to become RCMP members. The results indicate that child maltreatment, particularly physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, exposure to intimate partner violence, and experiences of peer victimization, are statistically significantly associated with decreased resilience among Cadets, underscoring the critical importance of mitigating adverse impacts of ACEs on resilience processes among Cadets before or during the Cadet training program. The emotional resilience skills training provided during Cadet training is designed to support more constructive engagement with emotions, which is expected to be helpful.

Current research suggests that Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Cadet mental health when starting the Cadet training program (CTP) appears comparable to, or better than, the general public. At pre-deployment (i.e., upon completion of the CTP and immediately before active-duty deployment), the same Cadets evidenced improved mental health relative to their pre-training assessments, and better mental health than serving RCMP, but the mechanisms associated with the mental health improvements are still being evaluated. The self-monitoring tools provided to RCMP Study participants during the CTP were expected to directly and indirectly support participant mental health. Cadets who completed more monthly self-report mental health symptom surveys evidenced greater decreases from pre-training to pre-deployment in their self-reported mental health disorder symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and major depressive disorder, but not alcohol use disorder or panic disorder. Scheduled monthly self-monitoring offers a readily accessible, seemingly transdiagnostic, evidence-based tool for helping to improve the mental health of RCMP Cadets, which could be extended to improvements in the mental health of RCMP members and other PSP.

The cardiac cycle timing intervals and measurements of heart function can provide key insights to an individual’s stress levels. Some of these parameters are widely available in many different groups, including the general public, university athletes, and those with heart diseases. However, there is still limited data available to describe the cardiac cycle of Cadet recruits joining policing. Considering that members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have an increased risk for developing various posttraumatic stress injuries, monitoring their heart function can be vital to identify worrisome changes which can lead to a future medical complication. The current study was designed to characterize the cardiac cycle metrics of the RCMP Cadets beginning their Cadet training program (CTP) to provide values to be used for comparison. We found that RCMP Cadets beginning their training program have similar differences between males and females as seen in the healthy general population. As such, male and female RCMP Cadets do not present with a heightened risk for a future medical complication relative to healthy members of the general public.

Despite the higher prevalence of mental health disorders among serving Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) relative to the general population, RCMP Cadets begin training with lower putative risk and greater perceived resilience than young adults in the general population. The current study was designed to assess the effectiveness of the Cadet training program—the paramilitary training RCMP recruits complete to become serving RCMP—in strengthening RCMP Cadets’ mental health by examining putative risk and resilience factors among post-training/pre-deployment Cadets. Participants had significantly lower scores on all putative risk variables with the exception of state anger, and significantly higher scores on perceived resilience, at post-training/pre-deployment compared to pre-training. Participants also had significantly lower scores on all putative risk variables, and significantly higher scores on perceived resilience, compared to scores from young adult control samples. These uncontrolled pilot findings suggest the Cadet training program may be beneficial for RCMP Cadets’ mental health and provide further evidence that the nature of policing, rather than individual differences in risk and resilience, likely explain serving RCMP’s relatively higher prevalence of mental health disorders.

The high number of serving Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) members with mental health disorders have often been incorrectly attributed to inadequate mental health screening of Cadets, or the potentially harmful nature of police training programs. In contrast, current research suggests that serving RCMP members screen positive for mental health disorders as a result of service-related mental health injuries from exposures to potentially psychologically traumatic events. The current study provides estimates of RCMP Cadet mental health at pre-deployment. At pre-deployment, the proportion of Cadets who screened positive for one or more current mental disorders based on self-reported symptoms (7.3%) or the clinical interview (4.1%) was lower than the diagnostic prevalence for the general population (10.1%), with no statistically significant sex or gender differences. Cadets evidenced improved mental health relative to their pre-training assessments, and better mental health than other RCMP members. The mental health disorder symptom improvements directly contrast long-standing notions that mental disorders among serving public safety personnel or military are caused by inherent weaknesses or pre-existing mental health injuries among people who should have been pre-emptively excluded from service. The results further contrast recent suppositions that police training is harmful to Cadets.