Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T09:14:38.559Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stress Among Police Body Handlers

A Long-Term Follow-up

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

David A. Alexander
David A. Alexander*
Affiliation:
Department of Mental Health, Medical School, University of Aberdeen, Forester Hill, Aberdeen AB9 2ZD, and Honorary Consultant, Grampian Police
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Thirty-five police officers were followed up three years after they had been first assessed following their involvement in the retrieval and identification of human remains after a major disaster. Most of these officers were free from signs of psychiatric morbidity. Organisational and managerial practices appear to be powerful antidotes to adverse post-traumatic reactions. In this study the use of a longitudinal design, with a pre-disaster baseline and a control group, suggests that these are robust findings.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 163 , Issue 6 , December 1993 , pp. 806 - 808
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexander, D. A. (1991) Psychiatric intervention after the Piper Alpha disaster. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 84, 8–11.Google Scholar
Alexander, D. A. & Wells, A. (1991) Reactions of police officers to body-handling after a major disaster: a before-and-after comparison. British Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 547–555.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alexander, D. A., Walker, L. G., Innes, G., et al (1993) Police Stress at Work. London: Police Foundation.Google Scholar
Duckworth, D. (1986) Psychological problems arising from disaster work. Stress Medicine, 2, 315–323.Google Scholar
Eysenck, H. J. & Eysenck, S. B. G. (1975) Manual of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. Sevenoaks: Hodder & Stoughton.Google Scholar
Horowitz, M., Wilner, M. & Alvarez, W. (1979) Impact of Event Scale: a measure of subjective stress. Psychosomatic Medicine, 41, 209–218.Google Scholar
Jones, D. R. (1985) Secondary disaster victims: the emotional effects of recovering and identifying human remains. American Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 303–307.Google ScholarPubMed
McFarlane, A. C. (1988) The longitudinal course of post-traumatic morbidity. Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, 176, 30–39.Google Scholar
Shepherd, M. & Hodgkinson, P. E. (1990) The hidden victims of disaster: helper stress. Stress Medicine, 6, 29–35.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. & Solomon, M. (1991) Body recovery teams at disasters: trauma or challenge? Anxiety Research, 4, 235–244.Google Scholar
Zigmond, A. S. & Snaith, R. P. (1983) The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 67, 361–370.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.