We often hear about workplace stress affecting frontline police officers, but it is important to understand how different types of stress experienced by staff in specialist roles such as forensic services impact their wellbeing.
New Griffith University research investigated the types of stress factors which affect police staff working in forensic services who typically examined crime scenes, analysed evidence, and often encountered distressing material.
Dr Jacob Keech from Griffith’s School of Applied Psychology said while police agencies had commonly focused on the impact of trauma exposure, our study aimed to see how broader organisational and occupational demands affected forensic staff wellbeing and identified the workplace resources to help protect against stress and burnout.
“Examples of organisational stressors included unequal sharing of work responsibilities, bureaucratic red tape, and excessive administrative duties,” Dr Keech said.
“We also found working alone at night, risk of being injured on the job, and shift work were also contributing factors.”
The research found organisational and operational pressures, not trauma exposure, were the strongest predictors of poor wellbeing outcomes such as burnout and distress.
Staff conveyed they felt overwhelmed by administrative obligations, and that they may let the team down due to their work pace.
They reported stress due to doubting their own thoroughness in investigations, hours of work impacted balancing work-life balance, and concern about colleagues’ skills or drive impacting their work standard.
Conversely, supportive supervisors, peer support, and a psychosocial safety climate where staff felt their wellbeing was valued by the organisation were protective factors linked with lower burnout, and better engagement and job satisfaction.
Dr Keech said the findings highlighted improving wellbeing for police staff working in forensic services required a holistic approach which went beyond trauma support.
“Police agencies should focus on reducing organisational and administrative strain, building a psychosocial safety climate where wellbeing is prioritised across all levels of management, and uplifting supervisor and peer support capacity,” he said.
“We are working to support police agencies to do this. Associate Professor Jacqueline Drew and I have developed the EMPOWER Leaders Program aimed at uplifting capability of mid-level police leaders to improve their own health and that of their staff.”
The paper ‘Workplace demands, resources, and well-being among police staff working in forensic services’ has been published in Journal of Forensic Sciences.
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Jacob Keech
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