Who gets PTSD? : issues of posttraumatic stress vulnerability

Persons engaged in occupations that require emergency responses must frequently deal with exposure to incidents that are traumatic. Some of these persons develop posttraumatic stress reactions or fullblown posttraumatic stress disorder, while others do not. A key issue in the development of traumatic stress is vulnerability. This book draws from research and life experiences on trauma vulnerability to better understand how mental health professionals and those concerned with the psychological well-being of others may disentangle the perplexing questions of who gets PTSD, why they do, and how we may prevent or minimize this from happening. Major topics in the text include: assessing psychological distress and physiological vulnerability in police officers; personal, organizational, and contextual influences in stress vulnerability; differences in vulnerability to posttraumatic deprivation; gender differences in police work stress and trauma; trauma types, frequency of exposure, and gender differences; personal, event, and organizational influences in police stress vulnerability; vulnerability, war, and prisoner abuse; reducing trauma through personal and response management; psychological vulnerability among international aid workers; prolonged separation and family vulnerability; risk communication and equilibrium theory; a statistical model for measuring trauma vulnerability; and traumatic stress in protective services professions. What is clear from the chapters that comprise this volume is that vulnerability should be conceptualized as a multilevel phenomenon, and the text identifies the contributing levels of analysis that provides the foundation for this process. The text will serve as a valuable resource to professionals in law enforcement, emergency and paramedical services, and the military, as well as to psychologists, psychiatrists, and counselors

Stress shield : a model of police resiliency

Abstract: This paper discusses the development of a new model of police officer resiliency. Following Antonovsky's definition of resilience, the model is built on the view that the resilience of a person or group reflects the extent to which they can call upon their psychological and physical resources and competencies in ways that allow them to render challenging events coherent, manageable, and meaningful. The model posits that a police officer s capacity to render challenging experiences meaningful, coherent, and manageable reflects the interaction of person, team, and organizational factors. The paper argues that a model that encompasses these factors can be developed using theories drawn from the literatures of occupational health and empowerment. The development of the model is also informed by the need to ensure that it can accommodate the importance of learning from past experiences to build resilience in ways that increase officers' capacity to adapt to fi/ture risk and uncertainty. By building on recent empirical research, this paper outlines a new multi-level model of resilience and adaptive capacity. The Stress Shield model of resilience integrates person, team and organizational factors to provide a proactive framework for developing and sustaining police officer resilience

Generalizability of a biomathematical model of fatigue’s sleep predictions

Introduction: Biomathematical models of fatigue (BMMF) predict fatigue during a work-rest schedule on the basis of sleep-wake histories. In the absence of actual sleep-wake histories, sleep-wake histories are predicted directly from work-rest schedules. The predicted sleep-wake histories are then used to predict fatigue. It remains to be determined whether workers organize their sleep similarly across operations and thus whether sleep predictions generalize. Methods: Officers (n = 173) enrolled in the Buffalo Cardio-Metabolic Occupational Police Stress study were studied. Officers’ sleep-wake behaviors were measured using wrist-actigraphy and predicted using a BMMF (FAID Quantum) parameterized in aviation and rail. Sleepiness (i.e. Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) ratings) was predicted using actual and predicted sleep-wake data. Data were analyzed using sensitivity analyses. Results: During officers’ 16.0 ± 1.9 days of study participation, they worked 8.6 ± 3.1 shifts and primarily worked day shifts and afternoon shifts. Across shifts, 7.0 h ± 1.9 h of actual sleep were obtained in the prior 24 h and associated peak KSS ratings were 5.7 ± 1.3. Across shifts, 7.2 h ± 1.1 h of sleep were predicted in the prior 24 h and associated peak KSS ratings were 5.5 ± 1.2. The minute-by-minute predicted and actual sleep-wake data demonstrated high sensitivity (80.4%). However, sleep was observed at all hours-of-the-day, but sleep was rarely predicted during the daytime hours. Discussion: The sleep-wake behaviors predicted by a BMMF parameterized in aviation and rail demonstrated high sensitivity with police officers’ actual sleep-wake behaviors. Additional night shift data are needed to conclude whether BMMF sleep predictions generalize across operations. © 2020, © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC