Overview
- Features the voices of officers relating how they cope with traumatic experiences
- Reveals the impacts of an absence of an organisational strategy to effectively respond to traumatic experiences
- Provides recommendations as to how the responsibility for the health and well-being of officers can be assumed
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Table of contents (11 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
- Trauma in Policing
- Resilience and a Long Policing Career
- Police Executive Management as a Primary Stressor
- Staying well as a Police Officer
- Women in Policing
- Suicide in Police Organisations
- Death Exposure and Trauma in Policing
- Are Debriefs Useful to Police?
- Alcohol and Shift Work
- Sustaining Sleep and Police Shifts
- Resilience among South Australian Police
- changing police management
- Suicide in Policing
- PTSD and Policing
- Posttraumatic Growth and a Long Police Career
About this book
This book examines how fifty police officers in South Australia keep well and “bounce back” from duty-related traumatic experience in the absence of practical, accessible and timely organisational support. It investigates mechanisms police officers presently use to “normalise” their duty-related traumatic experiences to preserve the delicate professional balance between “coping” and “psychic numbing” and avoid the much publicised perils of a PTSD diagnosis, while being appropriately responsive to colleagues, victims and survivors in their daily work environment.
By revealing how police officers manage trauma—outside of the expectations of mental health professionals, union representatives and police leadership—innovative approaches and recommendations are offered to support first responders in moving from assumptions of post-traumatic stress and through post-traumatic growth. The book considers recent advances in post-traumatic growth and resilience theory and reinterpretsexposure in a positive context, as well as preventative experiences in Australia and internationally.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Andrew Paterson began his social work career in 1974 and spent most of it working in the justice system in South Australia. He began as Community Welfare Worker in the Adelaide Office of the state welfare department working with young offenders. In 1975, he became Founding Supervisor of the Crisis Care Unit, working directly with SA police patrols in early domestic violence programmes, siege negotiation and Police Academy training.
After six years in that role, during which the unit was replicated in several other Australian states, Andrew managed district centres for state welfare and in 1989 was seconded into the victims of crime service, a fledgling NGO as its first professional Executive Director. In this role, he raised profile of victims of crime, while carrying a case load of homicide victim’s families and armed robbery victims. He was instrumental in the creation of victim’s services in South Australia police and trained recruits at the Police Academy and offered inservice training to officers in domestic violence and victim support.
In 1995, Andrew was appointed General Manager of Mobilong Medium Security Prison and set about changing the culture and approaches to rehabilitation and management in the institution.
In 1997, he established Empower Justice Services, a consultancy focused on crime prevention, restorative justice, victim support, debriefing and training and worked with SAPOL on criminal intelligence around crime reduction strategies. During this period, he sat on a UN Institute Board, The International Centre for the Prevention of Crime, based in Montreal, Canada.
Dr. Paterson has worked at Flinders since 2010, supervising social work masters students on placement during which time he established many justice-oriented placements including SAPOL, Corrections and the Court System. He teaches topics focusing on professional ethics, critical thinking and social work in a justice context.
In 2015, he commenced Ph.D. studies into resilience and policing, interviewing fifty officers and six psychiatrists and psychologists who treat and assess police members. This thesis was passed in July 2018, and the degree was conferred in September of that year.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Trauma and Resilience in Contemporary Australian Policing
Book Subtitle: Is PTS Inevitable for First Responders?
Authors: Andrew Paterson
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4416-0
Publisher: Springer Singapore
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-16-4415-3Published: 19 August 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-981-16-4418-4Published: 20 August 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-981-16-4416-0Published: 18 August 2021
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVIII, 227
Number of Illustrations: 5 b/w illustrations, 2 illustrations in colour
Topics: Quality of Life Research, Criminology and Criminal Justice, general, Public Health, Social Policy, Politics of the Welfare State, Social Work and Community Development