Developing a Suicide Prevention Strategy for Public Safety Personnel (PSP)
Status: Ongoing
Project Lead: Dr. Simon Hatcher (PI)
Main Research Contact: Joe Burns
Funded By: Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR)
Due to the nature of their jobs, Public Safety Personnel (PSP) are chronically exposed to incidents that may be traumatizing. This exposure has been linked to an increased risk of suicidal behaviour and dying by suicide. Concerns about the mental health of PSP have been growing among policy makers, researchers, clinicians, and PSP members alike. In response to this pressure, provincial and federal governments have developed legislation to help PSP members access mental health supports for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, unlike many other countries, Canada does not have a national suicide prevention strategy specifically for PSP.
To address this, our PSP suicide prevention program of research will develop, evaluate, and disseminate a suicide prevention plan for Canadian PSP. This project will take place in four phases:
Gather: During this phase, we will conduct a pair of reviews designed to collect information related to PSP suicides and suicidal behaviour in Canada. First, we will conduct a systematic review of suicides among PSP to identify risk factors for suicide as well as high-risk PSP groups. Second, we will complete a realist review of PSP and military suicide prevention programs to identify what works, for whom, in what circumstances, and why. Due to the lack of PSP suicide prevention programs, we have opted to include military programs here to identify promising approaches that might be relevant in preventing PSP suicide.
Model: Information collected during the Gather phase will be used to inform system dynamic modelling that will assess the effectiveness of different intervention components and their combination for Canada’s PSP from 2022 to 2032.
Consult: Once the model has been developed, we will consult with key stakeholders, including researchers, knowledge users, members of PSP groups, and decision-makers to ensure the accuracy of the model developed.
Co-Produce: We will use a co-production model to write the suicide prevention strategy and plan. The goal of this phase will be to determine what should be included in the PSP Suicide Prevention strategy and how to best implement it.
Definitions and Public Safety Personnel
The language around public safety personnel and mental health can be confusing. Unless otherwise stated in this proposal we use the definitions in the CIPSRT glossary of terms (Canadian Institute for Public Safety Research and Treatment (CIPSRT). (2019). Glossary of terms: A shared understanding of the common terms used to describe psychological trauma (v2.1). Regina, SK).
In this glossary public safety personnel are defined as personnel who protect the safety and security of Canadians. This includes police, fire fighters, paramedics, border services officers, corrections officers, rescue personnel, communicators (911 dispatchers), Indigenous emergency officers, operational intelligence personnel and operations support staff.