Working in corrections can be stressful and involve exposure to potentially traumatic critical incidents. As such, corrections personnel have exhibited high rates of psychopathology including posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. Such symptoms can impact staff capacity to manage the people under their care. In contrast, research into correctional officer wellbeing as more than disorder absence is extremely limited. Therefore, this research program aimed to examine both markers of stress and wellbeing in correctional officers using a mixed method design and a salutogenic framework.
Results of a qualitative thematic analysis and a large-scale survey exploring correctional officer wellbeing will be discussed. In doing so, recommendations around supporting correctional officers in order to develop and sustain a mentally healthy workforce will be provided. Overall, the research suggests that correctional officers can simultaneously experience symptoms of stress and wellbeing. Therefore, in supporting correctional officers, organisations should not only consider how they can alleviate symptoms of psychopathology but also how they can enhance wellbeing. Understanding correctional officer wellbeing is of critical importance as employees with wellbeing tend to be more productive and satisfied at work, which can then flow on to benefit employers and prison residents.
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Dr Olivia Miller
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Olivia Miller is a doctoral student, research assistant, and sessional academic in the School of Psychology and Counselling at the Queensland University of Technology. Her PhD aims to examine the wellbeing of Correctional Officers using a salutogenic framework. She has a keen interest in understanding post-trauma responses and promoting wellbeing in high-risk groups including frontline emergency service workers and people experiencing incarceration. Her previous work in this area has included understanding epigenetic risk and protective factors for post-trauma outcomes in paramedic students and understanding factors that support the health and wellbeing of disaster victim identification workers. Olivia has experience working within multidisciplinary team projects to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions and programs including the Systems Thinking Incident Review (STIR) app and a first aid program for learner drivers.
