The federal government and RCMP are partnering with the University of Regina to study the mental health of police officers.
The government has given the university $8.9 million to complete the first three years of a 10-year study.
“Since 2006, we’ve had about 40 suicides of RCMP officers,” Asst. Commissioner Stephen White said at a news conference in Regina on Friday.
In 2014, 41.7 per cent of long-term disability claims for RCMP officers were related to mental health. Finding out why is a priority for the federal government.
“If we want our public safety and emergency workers to be effective in keeping Canadians safe, they themselves need to be healthy,” Ralph Goodale, minister of public safety and emergency preparedness, said.
Dr. Nicholas Carleton will be leading the study, with a team from across Canada and the United States. Participation will be voluntary and research will be conducted through wearable technology, psychological assessments and self-reporting.
“We are going to be assessing participants before they begin their training or at the very beginning of their training, as they conclude their training, and then we’re going to assess them repeatedly thereafter so that we can actually have the longitudinal data that’s necessary to speaks to things like cause,” Carleton said.
The RCMP does currently have measures in place to protect the mental health of its members, including training, peer-to-peer programming and critical incident courses. But, it admits it could do better.
“We hear regularly that it’s access timely access to resources, care, to respond to treat mental health-related issues,” White said.
The government says it hopes to apply what learns from this research to all first responders across the country.
Based on a report by CTV Regina's Ashley Field
