Police special forces (PSF) are deployed in dangerous operational situations that are associated with particular risks to mental health. Frequent training to cope with these extreme situations and selection are intended to mitigate these risks. However, the mental health consequences of critical incidents among PSF are largely unexplored. We hypothesized that following a barricaded subject operation involving hostage-taking and severe violence, deployed PSF would exhibit higher anger and impairment in their quality of life (QoL) compared to their non-deployed colleagues. In addition, we expected that these burdens would occur to a lesser extent among PSF compared to regular police forces, firefighters and ambulance personnel involved. In the study, N = 192 emergency personnel were included six months after the operation, of which n = 104 (n = 45 PSF) were deployed and n = 88 (n = 19 PSF) were not. QoL (WHOQOL-BREF), forms of anger (STAXI-2) and post-traumatic stress symptoms (PCL-5) were assessed using questionnaires. The mental health of deployed PSF did not differ significantly from their non-deployed colleagues. In comparison to firefighters and ambulance personnel on site, deployed PSF showed a higher psychological QoL, lower levels of anger expression-in and angry temperament. Regular police forces reported a lower environmental QoL. These results suggest greater resilience among PSF compared to other occupational groups, despite experiencing the highest acute operational stresses due to their tasks. Further research is needed to investigate influences of protective factors in PSF after potentially traumatic deployments and to refine methods for directly strengthening them.
Wellendorff et al. (Fri,) studied this question.