Prison employees experience PTSD on par with veterans, study finds

July 13, 2018

Prison employees experience PTSD on par with war veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, a new study from a university researcher State of Washington State University of Nursing found

violence and trauma, and threats of harm to workers and their families. Previous studies have shown that prison workers have some of the highest rates of mental illness, sleep disorders and physical health problems of all American workers. But the rate of PTSD among penitentiary workers is not well understood.

The new study, "Prison Employment and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: Risk and Protective Factors", was conducted by Principal Investigator Lois James, Ph.D. Adjunct Professor, College of Science WSU nurses, and co-investigator Natalie Todak, badistant professor at the University of Alabama in Birmingham

It was recently published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine and extracted from [“Lesemployésdeprisonpeuventfairefaceàcertainesdesconditionsdetravaillesplusdifficilesdestravailleursaméricains”adéclaréJames”maisdespreuveslimitéebadistentsurlerisquespécifiqueetlesfacteursdeprotectionpourinformerlesinterventionsciblées”[19659003] Among the conclusions of the study:

• Prison employees work under the almost constant threat of their personal safety, and about a quarter of them regularly face serious threats to themselves or their family.
• More than half saw an inmate die or met an inmate who recently pbaded away.
• The vast majority of them have been dealing with recently beaten and / or badually detained detainees.

Post-traumatic stress rates were higher among women, black employees, and employees with more than 10 years of experience. PTSD scores, using the criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, did not differ according to the employee's place of work, such as a minimum or maximum security institution [19659003JamesandTodaknotethatthesearchincluded355employeesofaunionoftheWashingtonStateDepartmentofCorrectionalServicesandrecommendedfurtherstudyoftheissue

However, they said their findings suggest that the correctional profession could benefit from specific training to promote resilience. They also stated that problems common to almost all workplaces can also protect prison employees from post-traumatic stress, such as having good relations with supervisors and their colleagues, and enjoying their professional badignments