RT Article
T1 Barriers to help-seeking among correction officers: examining the influence of institutional culture and structure
JF Promoting wellness and resiliency in correctional officers
SP 71
OP 88
A1 Wills, Candence
A2 Bates, Kayla
A2 Frost, Natasha 1974-
A2 Monteiro, Carlos. E.
LA English
YR 2023
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1924037653
AB Correction officers experience a challenging work environment that increases the risk of encountering violence, physical danger, and traumatic events such as inmate violence and potential assaults by inmates. The demanding work climate can lead to stress and mental health concerns. However, officers are reluctant to seek help for their own mental health concerns and avoid employer provided services, including peer-to-peer support units. This study seeks to explore the underlying institutional barriers to help-seeking for mental health concerns among correction officers. Content analysis is applied to qualitative data from 42 semi-structured interviews with family members and friends of correction officers who died by suicide and 395 interviews with officers working for a state department of corrections answering open-ended questions. Two overarching themes emerged and within these themes were a series of subthemes revealing institutional barriers to help-seeking for mental health concerns. Institutional culture centers around stigma related to mental health and hypermasculinity perpetuated in the work environment. Institutional structure contains institutional organization, confidentiality, and punitive responses as subthemes. Correctional settings could benefit from reducing stigma of mental health related encouraged by hypermasculinity, restructuring organizational hierarchies, enforcing confidentiality, and creating supportive environments for officers to seek help for mental health concerns.
NO Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 86-88
NO Originally published in the journal Criminal Justice Studies, volume 34, issue 4 (2021), pp. 423-440
SN 9781032407098
K1 institutional culture
K1 correctional settings
K1 institutional barriers
K1 Help-seeking
K1 Correction officers
K1 Strafvollzug : Justizvollzugsanstalt : Vollzugsbediensteter : Psychische Gesundheit : Psychische Belastung : Suizid