Workplace mental health implementation strategies in public safety organizations: a scoping review protocol

Abstract

This scoping review aims to map workplace mental health implementation strategies in public safety organizations and describe the characteristics, participants, and contexts of these strategies. Workplace mental health implementation strategies are relevant to public safety organizations due to the exposure that many public safety personnel, such as firefighters, paramedics, and police officers, have to psychological trauma in the course of their daily work. While the importance of attending to public safety personnel's mental health has been established, workplace mental health implementation strategies have historically varied in public safety organizations. This scoping review will address workplace mental health implementation strategies used in public safety organizations. It will exclude studies that do not focus on workplace mental health, do not report on the implementation strategies used, or do not take place in a public safety context. Primary studies published in English with any publication date up to the present will be considered. JBI methodology and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) will be followed. The search will be carried out in five databases and reference lists will also be searched for additional studies. Duplicates will be removed, and two independent reviewers will screen the titles, abstracts, and full text of the selected studies. Data collection will be performed using a tool developed by the researchers, based on JBI's model instrument for extracting study details, characteristics, and results. A summary of the results will be presented in diagrams, narratives, and tables.