Police Officers’ Attitudes, Intentions, and Stereotyping Towards Mental Health Help Seeking Behaviors

Police officers have a history of decreased willingness to seek mental health help. Increasing focus has been placed on enhancing the officer’s mental wellbeing but has this improved their help-seeking behavior? Methods This cross-sectional quantitative study evaluated officers’ mental health help-seeking attitudes, intentions, and stereotyping of others seeking help using mental distress levels. Data was collected from 337 officers across 22 states. Results Statistical significance was found in 1) age and mental distress, 2) gender on help-seeking attitudes, intentions, and stereotyping, and 3) experience and mental distress. Officers reported more positive help-seeking attitudes, intentions, and stereotyping. Conclusions Officers in this study showed improved help-seeking behaviors, positive stereotyping of help-seekers, and the majority of officers fell within the low (0–4) and moderate (5–12) mental distress groups. Results could be due to increased departmental focus on police-centric mental wellbeing services and education.