Delivering ICBT to Address Mental Health Challenges in Correctional Officers and Other Public Safety Personnel

Public safety personnel (PSP) have regular and often intense exposure to potentially traumatic events at work and are at higher risk for developing mental health problems such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Studies have shown up to 4 times higher suicidal ideation, attempt and death among this population compared to the general population. Despite the high rate of mental health problems among PSPs, their willingness to receive mental healthcare support is fairly low, mainly due to the stigma attached to these disorders. Those who are willing to seek help face unique barriers including their irregular shift hours, limiting their access to resources otherwise available to the public. Given these challenges and the critical contribution of PSPs to public safety, developing innovative solutions to address their mental health must be a healthcare priority. This proposal aims to study the efficacy of using an innovative approach in delivering mental health online, to address mental health problems among correctional workers (CW), who are especially prone to mental health problems given the high rate of workplace violence. It is hypothesized that using an online platform to deliver cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), would lower the stigma of receiving care in a secure and confidential environment, easing CW's concerns about stigma from co-workers. The content is delivered through interactive and engaging therapy modules, designed for specific groups of CWs and customized by situational examples to make therapy more relatable. These online modules would provide CWs with 24/7 access to therapy content, solving the irregular work hour problem. The online CBT modules developed in this study would provide high quality and clinically validated resources to address mental health problems of CWs all across Canada. Knowledge acquired through this project could also be beneficial to using iCBT in general for addressing mental health challenges among other PSPs.