“There Was No Plan in Place to Get Us Help”: Strategies for Improving Mental Health Service Utilization Among Law Enforcement

Abstract

Police experience a documented, elevated need for mental health (MH) care due to the significant chronic stressors and acute traumatic experiences that characterize police work. Yet, many barriers prevent officers from accessing and engaging fully in MH treatment. The purpose of this study is to understand the idiosyncratic officer-perceived barriers and facilitators to MH service utilization to generate strategies for increasing the accessibility of MH resources. Heeding the call for more qualitative work in this line of inquiry, we used thematic analysis of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with a sample of 48 U.S. police officers to examine how officers came to initiate MH services, why they chose to engage or not engage such resources, and what organizational and supervisory factors promoted service utilization. Officers’ narratives show that police leadership should strive to (1) alleviate fear of negative professional consequences by addressing structural stigma, (2) improve agency culture and social norms around mental health care by focusing on prevention and resilience, and (3) emphasize the development of relevant and trustworthy MH care. To address structural barriers, officers described the urgent need for police leadership to clarify and make transparent organizational MH policies and processes, systematize departmental MH responses, and leverage mandated counseling. Additionally, officers perceived the need for a cultural shift emphasizing comprehensive, incentivized, preventative MH services. Finally, officers’ concerns regarding the quality of MH care encompassed the need for confidential, trustworthy services grounded in the realities of police work. Implications for research and practice are discussed.