The mental health and wellness (MHW) of police officers is a global concern. Although many individual-level programs have been implemented in recent years to help officers cope with traumatic events, these initiatives overlook the structural-level conditions that frame how MHW is perceived in police organizations. Drawing on police culture and social identity theory, this paper argues that progress requires attention to three areas: restructuring expectations surrounding MHW in policing, redefining perceptions of officers with MHW concerns, and realigning leadership practices to prioritize organizational MHW.
Baker et al. (Fri,) studied this question.