Suicide Trends in the Italian State Police during the Sars-CoV-2 Pandemic

A Comparison with the Pre-Pandemic Period

Datos Bibliográficos

ID15510532
AutoresSilvana Maselli (Ministry of Interior), Antonio Del Casale (0000-0003-2427-6944, Sapienza University of Rome), Elena Paoli (0000-0003-0180-7386, Ministry of Interior, autor de correspondencia), Maurizio Pompili (0000-0003-1886-4977, Sapienza University of Rome), Sergio Garbarino (0000-0002-8508-552X, Ministry of Interior)
Año2022
Volumen19
Número10
Páginas5904-5904
Fecha de publicación2022-05-12
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1661-7827 • E-ISSN: 1660-4601
EditorialMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3390/ijerph19105904
PMID35627441
OpenAlexW4280618596
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas66

The pandemic is posing an occupational stressor for law enforcement personnel. Therefore, a high priority is the need to quantify this phenomenon and put supportive programs in place. During the pandemic period, the Italian State Police implemented different support programs for the personnel. These included a national toll-free number to provide information on COVID-19 to police staff, availability of a health care service by doctors and nurses at the national level, vaccination services, working remotely, and a psychological intervention protocol called "Together we can" ("Insieme Possiamo"). Our study firstly aims to perform a descriptive analysis of the suicide in the Italian police from 2016 to 2021, and secondly aims to compare the pandemic and pre-pandemic periods. During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (February 2020 to October 2021), the suicide rate in the State Police did not significantly increase compared to the pre-pandemic period, showing a stable trend with a not significant decrease in the suicide rate. The implementation of staff support services by the Central Directorate of Health of the Italian State Police and individual resilience aspects of the Police personnel in response to the pandemic may have positively affected the phenomenon. These aspects pave the way to further studies on the issue to improve preventive strategies

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Disease · Law enforcement · Medical emergency · Occupational safety and health · Pandemic · Poison control · Political science · Suicide prevention · COVID-19 and Mental Health · Law · Medicine · Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research · Suicide and Self-Harm Studies