Policía local, estrés y salud

Abstract

Despite the importance of police work for people and their property, both in protecting their rights and freedoms and in guaranteeing their peace of mind and security, few studies have been carried out to date on the mental health of members of the Security Forces and Corps. This research was born out of concern for the psychological well-being of our police officers, since in the exercise of their functions and tasks they are obliged to put their health at risk, both due to the risk situations they face and the different stress factors inherent to their profession. The following are some of these circumstances related to the characteristics of police work, such as: ensuring the normal application of and respect for rules, both written and unwritten (customs), working shifts, working at night or on weekends, lacking sufficient material or human resources or both for the proper and safe development of their actions, excessive administrative or bureaucratic work, lack of recognition or merit from the institutions for risky interventions or those that have required extraordinary effort, among others. These factors are combined with social difficulties, e.g. carrying out joint work with colleagues with whom there are personal or professional conflicts or communication problems, intervening with people who are emotionally upset (fear, anger), who are going to be reported after committing an offence, listening to complaints or lack of respect from citizens, arresting people who refuse to be arrested, are armed or injured, helping injured people or finding that they have died for whatever reason, violence of any kind, self-harm (suicides), dealing with private conflicts, abuse in the domestic sphere or towards vulnerable people. These are risky situations for the physical and psychological integrity of police officers, as well as for the normal and proper functioning of the public administration. They also require a high cognitive and emotional demand which, together with the personal and organisational shortcomings or difficulties in coping with them, result in the appearance of work-related stress or burnout, if it is sustained over time. The symptoms that sound the "alarm bell" are, among others: emotional fatigue, irritability, lack of interest in work, poor treatment of citizens and absenteeism. Work-related stress has been identified as one of the most important occupational risks affecting the mental health of members of any Security Corps due to the constant exposure to these psychosocial factors. In this study, a sample of 323 local police officers from different municipalities in the Region of Murcia was used to assess the relationship established between psychosocial risk factors and the probability of experiencing symptoms compatible with stress and burnout syndrome. The participants' responses to the questionnaires used (F-PSICO 4.0 and MBI-GS) were examined using a ¨network analysis¨ model, which treats this type of psychological pathology as a complex and dynamic system, estimating a network of psychopathological symptoms self-reported on the sample of local police officers. It is the first time that this type of analysis is used in our country on a population of police officers, thus contributing to take a step further towards research on the mental health of our Public Safety professionals and the appropriate or necessary preventive policies. The results showed that there are more cohesive networks of psychosocial risk factors when the levels of cynicism and emotional exhaustion were higher. In addition, a higher level of burnout was found to be associated with low autonomy, high psychological demands, role conflict and low perceived social support. The results have been discussed in terms of their theoretical implication and their practical usefulness for the design of healthier work environments as well as for psychological intervention.