The ‘cost’ of caring in policing: From burnout to PTSD in police officers in England and Wales

This article looks at secondary trauma of police officers caused by working with traumatised victims, examining what is the true ‘cost of caring’ for police officers in England and Wales. It will discuss common work-related ‘stressors’ in policing and review the concepts commonly associated with secondary trauma such as ‘burnout’, ‘vicarious trauma’, ‘compassion fatigue’, ‘secondary traumatic stress’ and their impact. It will conclude with some recommendations and highlight the serious lack of literature on this topic, making secondary trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder in policing an under researched area, particularly in relation to the effects of cumulative trauma in policing

Beehive 1968

https://neiudc.neiu.edu/beehive/1004/thumbnail.jp

Beehive 1969

https://neiudc.neiu.edu/beehive/1005/thumbnail.jp

Origins, Destinations and Catchments: Mapping travel to work in Ireland in 2002

Over recent years there has emerged an increased awareness of the importance of strategic spatial planning and of the extent to which concepts such as place and space really matter. An enhanced understanding of the geography of living and of the economy requires not only a knowledge of where people and objects are but also of how those places relate to one another. This requires fundamentally sound data on movement patterns, of which the most important is probably the daily journey to work (Horner, 1999). In this paper we explore for the first time several aspects of the journey to work using data from the CSO 2002 Census of Population (CSO 2003a, CSO 2003b. CSO 2004a). While the approach at this stage is mainly descriptive supported by detailed mapping it is timely and it will hopefully contribute to discussion in a number of areas of public policy. These include the estimation of regional per capita levels of output (per capita GVA), the extent of the catchment areas of the National Spatial Strategy Gateways and hubs, the environmental sustainability of new trip patterns, and the impact of longer and more stressful journey times on quality of life

Origins, Destinations and Catchments: Mapping travel to work in Ireland in 2002

Over recent years there has emerged an increased awareness of the importance of strategic spatial planning and of the extent to which concepts such as place and space really matter. An enhanced understanding of the geography of living and of the economy requires not only a knowledge of where people and objects are but also of how those places relate to one another. This requires fundamentally sound data on movement patterns, of which the most important is probably the daily journey to work (Horner, 1999). In this paper we explore for the first time several aspects of the journey to work using data from the CSO 2002 Census of Population (CSO 2003a, CSO 2003b. CSO 2004a). While the approach at this stage is mainly descriptive supported by detailed mapping it is timely and it will hopefully contribute to discussion in a number of areas of public policy. These include the estimation of regional per capita levels of output (per capita GVA), the extent of the catchment areas of the National Spatial Strategy Gateways and hubs, the environmental sustainability of new trip patterns, and the impact of longer and more stressful journey times on quality of life

<i>‘It’s why you get up in the morning’</i>. A Straussian grounded theory study of coping in police officers who investigate rape and child abuse

Policing by its very nature has been widely recognised as being inherently stressful with little that can be done to prevent police officers’ exposure to both primary and secondary trauma. Officers involved in the investigation of child abuse and sexual offences have been further recognised as working in some of the most stressful and demanding roles in policing. However, there has been little research within this high-risk group of officers which seeks to understand how they cope with both the organisational and occupational stressors they are exposed to, as well as which strategies help them to ‘ get up in the morning’. Data were collected through twenty-three (23) semi-structured interviews, with Straussian Grounded Theory used as a framework to develop a model of coping. This study highlighted that although some officers were affected by the traumatic nature of their work, there were other risk factors present which appear to have impacted on them more significantly including ‘burnout’, ’compassion fatigue’ and ‘moral injury’. Protective factors were identified as ‘being in control’, ‘organisational, social and peer support’ as well as ‘having a purpose’ all of which impacted on an officer’s ability to cope with the work they do. The present findings extend our knowledge of key concepts relating to police officer coping which may help officers working in these high-risk roles to cope with challenges they face daily. Recommendations for further research on how to support this group of officers, as well as implications for practice are discussed

The clinical and financial implications of a decade of prostate biopsies in the NHS : analysis of Hospital Episode Statistics data 2008–2019

© 2020 Wiley. This is the accepted version of the following article: Tamhankar, A.S., El‐Taji, O., Vasdev, N., Foley, C., Popert, R. and Adshead, J. (2020), "The clinical and financial implications of a decade of prostate biopsies in the NHS: analysis of Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data 2008‐2019". BJU Int., which has been published in final form at https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bju.15062.Objective: To evaluate the clinical and financial implications of a decade of prostate biopsies performed in the UK National Health Service (NHS) through the transrectal (TR) vs the transperineal (TP) route. Methods: We conducted an evaluation of the TR vs the TP biopsy approach in the context of 28 days post-procedure complications and readmissions. A secondary evaluation of burden of expenditure in NHS hospitals over the entire decade (2008–2019) was conducted through examination of national Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data. Results: In this dataset of 486 467 prostate biopsies (387 879 TR and 98 588 TP biopsies), rates of infection and sepsis were higher for the TR compared to the TP cohort (0.53% vs 0.31%; P < 0.001, confidence interval 99%). Rates of sepsis have more than doubled for TR biopsies in the last 2 years compared to the previous decade (1.12% vs 0.53%). Infective complications were the main reasons for readmissions in the TR cohort, whereas urinary retention was the predominant reason for readmission in the TP cohort. Over the last decade, non-elective (NEL) readmissions seem higher for the TP group; however, in the last 2 years these have reduced compared to the TR group (3.54% vs 3.74%). The cost estimates for NEL readmissions for the entire decade were £33,589,527.00 and £7,179,926.00 respectively, for TR and TP cohorts (P < 0.001). Estimated costs per patient readmission were £2,225.00 and £1,758.00 in the TR and TP groups (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Evaluation of nearly half a million prostate biopsies in the NHS over the entire decade gives sufficient evidence for the distinct advantages of the TP route over the TR route in terms of reduced infections and burden of expenditure. In addition, there is a potential for savings both in upstream and downstream costs if biopsy is performed under a local anaesthetic.Peer reviewe

‘<i>Holding onto trauma?</i>’ The prevalence and predictors of PTSD, anxiety and depression in police officers working with child abuse, rape and sexual exploitation victims

Research into post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other common mental disorders (CMDs) in police officers is limited, with the majority of research predominately conducted outside the UK, and no study quantitatively examining the role of social support in relation to the mental health of UK police officers working with victims of trauma. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the prevalence and predictors of PTSD and CMD in UK police officers who investigate rape, sexual exploitation and child abuse, along with the potential protective role of social support. Participants were police officers ( n = 353) within one police area, who completed self-report measures of PTSD, anxiety, depression and social support. Results showed that 23% of officers had potentially clinical levels of PTSD, 26% had moderate to severe levels of anxiety and 35% had moderate to severe levels of depression. Female officers, those of constable rank, those working with victims of child abuse, and those with lowest levels of social support had poorer mental health. There was tentative evidence that social support statistically moderated the relationship between tenure and depression. These findings suggest the need for bespoke help for the sub-group of officers experiencing mental health problems and for further research into the potential protective role of social support

MendelianRandomization v0.5.0: updates to an R package for performing Mendelian randomization analyses using summarized data.

The MendelianRandomization package is a software package written for the R software environment that implements methods for Mendelian randomization based on summarized data. In this manuscript, we describe functions that have been added to the package or updated in recent years. These features can be divided into four categories: robust methods for Mendelian randomization, methods for multivariable Mendelian randomization, functions for data visualization, and the ability to load data into the package seamlessly from the PhenoScanner web-resource. We provide examples of the graphical output produced by the data visualization commands, as well as syntax for obtaining suitable data and performing a Mendelian randomization analysis in a single line of code