Law enforcement agencies have made meaningful progress in recognizing the importance of officer mental health. Peer support teams, employee assistance programs, wellness training, and access to mental health professionals are increasingly part of the conversation about supporting the people who serve.
These resources matter, but a growing body of research points to a question that deserves equal attention: What happens when the working conditions that contribute to poor health remain unchanged? A new study published in Policing: An International Journal offers important insight into that question.
Drawing on responses from 6,522 individuals who had served in sworn law enforcement roles, researchers examined mental health symptoms, occupational and personal stressors, coping strategies, use of wellness resources, and barriers to seeking care.
The study documents mental health concerns among law enforcement personnel and identifies associations between working conditions and psychological health.
For departments working to strengthen their wellness efforts, providing resources to officers who are struggling is essential, but it is only part of the equation. Agencies also need to examine the working conditions and organizational practices that may contribute to poor health outcomes.
This research reinforces an idea we've explored previously at The Howard C. Liebengood Foundation: officer wellness should be measured by health outcomes, not simply by the availability of programs and resources.
What the National Wellness Survey Found
In their 2026 study, Police officer wellness: findings from the national wellness survey for public safety personnel, Jessica R. Blalock and colleagues examined responses from current and former sworn law enforcement personnel using established mental health screening measures.
Among respondents:
16.9% screened positive for clinically elevated anxiety symptoms.
16.2% screened positive for depression symptoms.
19.9% screened positive for alcohol-related risk.
21.1% of those who completed the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) screened positive for clinically significant posttraumatic stress symptoms.
These results reflect screening measures rather than confirmed clinical diagnoses and should not be interpreted as representative of every law enforcement agency in the country. The study also identified concerns about stigma, confidentiality, career consequences, and preferences for self-reliance as barriers to seeking help.
Of particular relevance to agency leaders was the association between working hours and mental health. Longer weekly work hours were consistently associated with elevated anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress symptoms.
Not every outcome followed the same pattern. Alcohol-related risk, for example, was more strongly associated with years of service and relationship status.
Workload Is a Wellness Issue
Long hours are often treated as an unavoidable feature of police work.
Departments must respond to emergencies, maintain minimum staffing, accommodate court schedules, and meet public expectations for uninterrupted service. Officers may work overtime to address staffing shortages, support their families, or fulfill responsibilities that cannot be postponed.
These realities make workload difficult to manage. They do not make its potential health consequences less important.
The association identified in the national wellness survey is consistent with earlier research examining police schedules, fatigue, and occupational health.
In a 2019 study published in BMJ Open, researchers analyzed responses from 3,140 police officers and found that irregular schedules, long shifts, mandatory overtime, insufficient sleep, and sleepiness were associated with increased risk of burnout. Officers who more frequently worked shifts of 11 hours or longer had greater odds of emotional exhaustion.
Earlier research by Bryan Vila similarly examined how long and irregular working hours can threaten officer health, safety, and performance.
Although the research does not establish that changes to working hours alone will improve mental health, it supports considering scheduling practices and fatigue management as components of organizational wellness efforts.
An officer experiencing chronic fatigue may have access to a wellness application, peer support team, and counseling services. But if staffing demands consistently limit opportunities for adequate sleep and recovery, those resources address only part of the problem.
Likewise, an agency may encourage officers to prioritize mental health while maintaining operational practices that leave little time to do so.
Operational demands will always influence police schedules, and departments cannot eliminate every source of occupational stress. However, agencies can consider the potential health effects of scheduling and workload decisions alongside their staffing and operational needs.
The Availability of Care Is Not the Same as Access to Care
Stigma and confidentiality concerns have been part of the law enforcement wellness conversation for years. As we've discussed in our examination of the Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act, expanding access to mental health resources is an important part of improving officer wellness. Even when counseling services are available, however, officers may be reluctant to use them because of concerns about confidentiality, potential effects on their careers, or how colleagues might perceive them.
A 2024 study by Michael Whittington and Sherah Basham provides additional context. Examining survey responses from 247 officers in a large metropolitan police agency, the researchers found that perceived coworker stigma was negatively associated with use of stress-relief programs. Confidence in confidentiality and prior experience using such programs were positively associated with utilization.
A wellness resource is only useful when an officer can realistically access it and feels sufficiently confident to do so.
Agencies should examine whether their policies clearly explain confidentiality protections and their limits, whether supervisors understand appropriate responses to requests for help, and whether personnel have reasonable access to qualified clinicians familiar with the demands of law enforcement.
If officers consistently hear that mental health matters but observe negative consequences when colleagues request assistance, formal messaging is unlikely to overcome those experiences.
Trust develops through organizational practices, not simply through organizational statements.
What This Research Means for Agency Leaders
Agency wellness assessments often begin with an inventory of available services, such as employee assistance programs, peer support teams, wellness training, and contracted mental health providers. While useful, this approach provides limited insight into the working conditions and organizational practices that may influence officer health.
A more complete assessment might begin with several questions.
Are working conditions being considered alongside wellness programming?
Agencies can review overtime demands, scheduling practices, opportunities for recovery, and other occupational stressors. Even when operational constraints prevent immediate changes, identifying those conditions can help leaders make more informed decisions.
Do officers trust the resources available to them?
Leadership should understand how personnel perceive confidentiality, whether they believe seeking assistance could affect their careers, and whether available services meet their needs. A program's existence does not establish its effectiveness or accessibility.
Are supervisors equipped to recognize and respond to wellness concerns?
Supervisors influence workload, communication, workplace culture, and officers' experiences when they request assistance. Training should extend beyond recognizing signs of distress to understanding how supervisory practices can support or undermine wellness.
Are wellness efforts evaluated through meaningful outcomes?
Program participation, training attendance, and resource utilization provide useful information. They do not, on their own, establish that officer health is improving.
Agencies should also consider appropriate measures of employee experience, organizational conditions, perceived access to care, and changes over time. Individual health information must be handled with appropriate privacy protections.
Are officers involved in identifying problems and developing solutions?
Leadership, labor representatives, supervisors, peer support personnel, clinicians, and officers bring different perspectives to organizational health challenges.
Involving these groups can help agencies distinguish between resources that appear effective on paper and approaches that personnel consider useful in practice.
None of these questions requires a department to create an entirely new wellness program. Many require examining the systems, policies, and decisions already in place.
From Individual Support to Organizational Improvement
Police agencies differ substantially in size, staffing, resources, culture, and operational demands. The wellness challenges facing a large metropolitan department may differ considerably from those of a small or rural agency, as will the resources available to address them.
For one department, the most pressing issue may be confidential access to mental health services. For another, it may be chronic overtime, limited supervisory training, or the absence of clear policies governing peer support.
An agency with limited funding may not be able to implement every recommended practice immediately. It can still assess its existing conditions, identify priorities, strengthen partnerships, and take incremental steps toward improvement.
The national wellness survey was cross-sectional, meaning that researchers examined information collected at a particular point in time. Although the findings identify associations between working conditions and mental health symptoms, they cannot establish causation.
Agencies can use this evidence to identify organizational factors worth examining, consider potential improvements, and evaluate whether changes produce meaningful results. This kind of ongoing assessment can help ensure that wellness efforts remain responsive to the needs of personnel and the realities of police operations.
Treating the System, Not Just the Officer
At The Howard C. Liebengood Foundation, we believe improving officer health requires examining the broader systems that shape well-being throughout a law enforcement career. This perspective was central to HCLF's 2026 Symposium, which brought together leaders from law enforcement, medicine, research, and other disciplines to explore the organizational factors influencing officer health.
The national wellness survey adds to the evidence supporting this approach. Mental health services, peer support, and wellness education remain essential, particularly for officers experiencing significant distress. Agencies can strengthen these efforts by examining how scheduling, workload, leadership practices, and access to care influence the health of their personnel.
Agency leaders have opportunities to identify and address unnecessary occupational stressors while maintaining the operational demands of police work. Sustained progress will depend on understanding agency-specific challenges, implementing practical improvements, and evaluating their effects on officer health.
Integrating these considerations into everyday organizational decisions can help make officer wellness a sustained part of agency operations.
References
Blalock, J. R., Tavakoli, A., Bourke, M. L., Black, R. A., & Van Hasselt, V. B. (2026). Police officer wellness: Findings from the national wellness survey for public safety personnel. Policing: An International Journal, 49(6), 1141–1156. https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-02-2026-0053
Peterson, S. A., Wolkow, A. P., Lockley, S. W., O’Brien, C. S., Qadri, S., Sullivan, J. P., Czeisler, C. A., Rajaratnam, S. M. W., & Barger, L. K. (2019). Associations between shift work characteristics, shift work schedules, sleep and burnout in North American police officers: A cross-sectional study. BMJ Open, 9(11), Article e030302. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-030302
Vila, B. (2006). Impact of long work hours on police officers and the communities they serve. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 49(11), 972–980. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.20333
Whittington, M., & Basham, S. L. (2024). The role of stigma and confidentiality in police officer utilization of stress relief programs. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 39, 402–410. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-024-09681-y