The Well-Being of Correctional Officers in Canada

Correctional officers face a variety of occupational stressors and events that potentially undermine their mental health and well-being. In this chapter, we focus our attention on the literature examining the well-being of correctional officers working in Canada. Correctional officers are exposed to potentially psychologically traumatic events, such as responding to or witnessing a violent incident, at a rate much higher than the general population, which can result in developing mental health disorders, including posttraumatic stress disorder. Further, correctional officers deal with a variety of occupational stressors beyond potentially psychologically traumatic events that can be both organisational and operational in nature. The combination of traumatic events and occupational stressors not only can lead to development of mental health disorders, but also suicidal and other problematic behaviours. As operational stressors and traumatic events cannot be eliminated, it is essential for Canadian correctional organisations to minimise the possible organisational stressors and to provide correctional officers with the proper support and training to mitigate the impacts as far as possible.