We live in a society that blames individuals for their perceived shortcomings. We also do this with Canada’s frontline workers, as evidenced by a column published on October 28, entitled Frontline workers are our heroes, but they must take care of themselves. Help-seeking and healing happen when people are in a space where they can access and receive help. Programs like the Before Operational Stress program are critical to improving mental health outcomes among public safety personnel, or PSPs. That said, it is too simplistic to see lack of access to resources as an individual deficiency.
Numerous barriers can affect PSP workers’ decision to access mental health programming, as seen with the BOS program. Research highlights organizational factors as the most prominent barrier to accessing help. One such barrier relates to male-dominated PSP environments and the perceived sthigma to those seeking help and education about mental health issues.
PSP organizational cultures tend to adopt gender norms and traits typically associated with masculinity (toughness, restricted emotions). Because of this association, PSPs are less likely to access services, as access to help is associated with weakness within their organizational cultures. Additionally, PSP cultures tend to adopt unwritten norms of silence (i.e., not revealing internal issues or personal mental health issues) in fear of retaliation and retaliation (ie, bullying, harassment, discrimination, and career-related issues). This rule of silence may go against acceptance of the program. High-level transformative change is needed at both the structural and cultural levels to break down the stigma around mental health and mental illness. Individual change is more likely to occur if PSP organizations normalize and support help-seeking and address multilevel factors that create conditions of heightened tension.
Ontario provides such an example. In 2016, the Ontario Ministry of Labor published a directive order PSP organizations to provide “information on their workplace PTSD prevention plans” within one year. While each was tasked with completing a PTSD prevention plan)the the plans themselves varied significantly, ranging from one-page letters to multi-page plans and enacted and implemented policy statements. This variation in plans demonstrates the fluidity between the organizations. This fluidity is captured in the difference between how PSP organizations framed the PTSD problem and the proposed solutions. The more PSP organizations recognize their role in influencing individual outcomes, the more likely employees are to access programming. Such openness can only happen in an environment where they do not face stigma, discrimination and labelling, and their careers are not affected.
It’s also problematic to lump all the PSPs together. In doing so, organizational and employee differences between professions are ignored, despite their marked similarity in trauma exposure. For example, frontline healthcare The roles are predominantly filled by women. Unlike, policeman, fireY fixes roles continue to be filled predominantly by men. Barriers to accessing help may differ between male and female dominated professions, and these differences need to be explored. Simply saying that PSPs need to help themselves fails to take into account the complexity and nuanced environments within PSP organizations. It also shames and blames the individual instead of encouraging them to access help and programming like the BOS program.
