Confronting Chronic Career Stress
Part 1
Reprinted with permission from John Shuford from Corrections Today (January/February 2024). American Correctional Association. aca.org
Our criminal justice system is in crisis, with staff shortages as high as 40% and not uncommon unacceptably high rates of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, depression, anxiety, divorce, and suicide for those working within the system. This is old news, but the new news is that we are not alone.
In the September 2023 issue of The Prison Service Journalfrom the UK, which focused on staff wellbeing, said that their correctional staff is suffering the same consequences and staff shortages as in the U.S., and it is also true for many other countries. Their attempts to correct the existing issues are having the same ineffective systemic results as most of our efforts (Clements, 2023, p. 19). The journal describes three types of interventions:
1. Primary strategies that address the source of stress.
2. Secondary interventions that enhance people’s skills to manage potentially hazardous experiences.
3. Tertiary approaches aimed at those already experiencing difficulties in response to work-related hazards (p. 22).
“While there is evidence that secondary interventions such as cognitive behavioral strategies and relaxation techniques that can help manage stress, anxiety, and emotional exhaustion [in individuals], these are not likely to work in isolation” (p. 23). Primary interventions addressing the source of stress, i.e., attitudes and the work culture, are also necessary for systemic change. Unfortunately, there is a lack of attention paid to primary interventions. “There is a clear need for interventions at the public policy and organizational level” (p. 24). These must focus on improving the work culture and the feeling of isolation staff experience.
A major consequence of a toxic work culture is staff feeling disconnected from their own emotions and isolated from each other, from the community and often from their own families. This feeling of isolation is literally a major factor in developing most if not all the negative health conditions resulting from working in corrections and is one of the main reasons staff leave the profession. The importance of staff feeling personally isolated cannot be overemphasized, and this includes the profession itself feeling isolated from the community at large. This is not unique to U.S. corrections; it is a common experience of many corrections agencies in other countries as well.
An Epidemic of Isolation
This feeling of personal isolation is also very common in the U.S. in general. The 2023 U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory, “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation” (Murthy, 2023) states that about half of adults in America reported experiencing loneliness, and that was before COVID. It likely is much worse now. It is a major factor in the polarization we are experiencing and if we fail to build more connection, we will “continue to splinter and divide until we can no longer stand as a community or a country” (p.4). Social isolation increases the risk of premature death [from all causes] by 29%, heart disease by 29%, stroke by 32%, anxiety, depression, dementia and susceptibility to viruses and respiratory illness. It is also the “strongest and most reliable predictor of suicidal ideation, attempts, and lethal suicidal behavior among samples varying in age, nationality, and clinical severity” (p.29). On the other hand, social connection increases the odds of survival by 50%, (p.24) and may protect against suicide, especially for men (p.29).
“Adults across the globe rate their social relationships, particularly with family and close friends, as the most important source of meaning, purpose, and motivation in their lives (p.33). “Supportive and inclusive relationships at work are associated with employee job satisfaction, creativity, competence, and better job performance. Quality social support, social integration, and regular communication among co-workers of all levels are key to preventing chronic work stress and workplace burnout (p.35). The report goes on to state what workplaces can do (p.61):
• Make social connections a strategic priority in the workplace at all levels (administration, management, and employees).
• Train, resource and empower leaders and managers to implement programs that foster connection.
• Leverage existing leadership and employee training, orientation, and wellness resources to educate the workforce about the importance of social connection for workplace wellbeing, health, productivity, performance, retention, and other markers of success.
• Create practices and a workplace culture that allow people to connect to one another as whole people, not just as skill sets, and that fosters inclusion and belonging.
• Social isolation is bad enough in our country, but it is even worse in corrections and law enforcement, where our officers and staff are trained to isolate even more, and the work culture promotes it even further.
Isolation in Corrections
There is a direct connection between isolation and PTSD and depression, both of which have received much attention in recent years. But of equal and likely more importance are the deleterious effects of chronic career stress, which have similar consequences as PTSD, but for all staff, not just custody. Neuroscience research has increased our understanding of this. We know that when individuals experience acute stress, it is what happens next that is most important, and that is why the work culture is so significant. We also saw this in real life after the Vietnam war. Our veterans returned to a very unwelcoming country whereas the Viet Cong returned to their villages as heroes. Our vets developed PTSD, and many headed to the hills to live in isolation, but the Viet Cong did not develop any PTSD.
When an acute stress event is not processed in community, it becomes traumatic stress and eventually evolves into PTSD and/or depression. Hypervigilance develops and the brain is always on alert as though something negative is going to happen. There is a constant over production of the stress hormone cortisol in the brain, which is only meant to be produced for short periods of time until a danger has passed. The result is the brain is physically damaged and that negatively impacts most if not all other organs in the body. This hypervigilance is what chronic stress is. Not all staff will experience a traumatic event, but all are exposed to the chronic stress from working in corrections. One example of hypervigilance is officers off duty sitting at the back of a restaurant in order to see who comes into the room and always scanning for any potential problem no matter where they are.
Psychologically, the individual loses their sense of safety and empowerment. The most effective and efficient way to confront this is through staff training, both orientation and in-service for all staff, both custody and non-custody. There are three approaches to this that I am aware of. Information Based Training, Skill Based Training, and Immersive Experiential Training. Information-based training is good for communicating policy changes and increasing the knowledge base of staff about changes they may be experiencing from working in corrections. The second approach is Skill-Based training which is good for teaching specific tasks and interpersonal communication skills. This type of training is widespread throughout corrections. The third approach is what the Prison Service Journal calls “Primary strategies that address the source of stress.” That is Immersive Experiential training, which directly impacts staff attitudes and therefore, the work culture.
Immersive Experiential Training
There are three parts to this type of training: Attitude Skills, Interpersonal Skills, and Community Building Skills. What is different about this type of training is the inclusion of attitude skills and community building skills, which dramatically improves staff feelings of safety and empowerment. Attitude skills include self-awareness, empathy, personal responsibility [initiative, integrity, and interconnectedness with others] and emotional management. Community building skills include trust, respect, and inclusiveness. It is clear that the focus of these skills is to counter the feeling of social isolation. Of the thousands of staff that have experienced this type of training, 100% evaluate it positively (90% excellent, 27% very good and 3% good) and they are excited about the positive changes they have experienced both on and off the job, and they are not temporary. Six months after the training, staff are continuing to use the skills learned on the job (82%) and off the job (85%). This is because the training is experiential and directly impacts the limbic system or subconscious part of the brain where emotions, motivation and attitudes are located. The changes in attitude skills actually occur during the training itself and are immediate. Staff see themselves and others in a different light; in a more connected way, and this is how to counter their feelings of isolation.
Incorporating this two or three-day element into training does not require changing any of the existing training. It can be a stand-alone in-service and inserted near the beginning of orientation of new staff. Having it as a part of regular in-service training is important because that is where the culture change will occur. It is critically important to have all ranks and departments in a training to have the most impact for culture change. This training could be referred to as personal resilience training. It is actually emotional intelligence training, but staff are likely to dismiss a training by that name. Whatever the content, it needs to utilize the 4 Es principle: engage, energize, empower, and enjoy.
Engage them: the trainer must get the attention of the participants. This is done through creating a container of safety and gaining the respect of the participants. This is accomplished through positive conditions of affirmation, respect, and caring, rather than through negative reinforcement. The trainer must also show they know the subject matter well, are enthusiastic about it and motivated to help the participants learn it. The subject matter must be both important and relevant in the eyes of the participants.
Energize and excite them: the training gives participants the sense of hope that personal and institutional change is possible. Part of this sense of energy comes from increased self-awareness, which increases their connection to and understanding of their own emotions, and a feeling of being connected to other staff, especially staff of different rank and from different departments. This sense of hope, which comes from this feeling of connection and learning the skills taught in the training, counters the hopelessness and disconnection staff feel when experiencing burnout, depression, PTSD, anxiety, lack of trust and suicidal ideation. This results in participants being open to the rest of the training and is clearly important for when they return to their post.
Let me say a bit more about disconnection from one’s self, because self-awareness is the foundation for emotional intelligence. Correctional staff training, just like military training, disconnects trainees from their emotions so that the job can get done, and this is reinforced by the work culture, especially the code of silence. The price staff pay in physical and emotional issues is a price they neither signed up for, nor should have been made to pay, in order to work in a field that could make such a positive contribution to our community.
Empower: teaching emotional intelligence tools and the experience of positive attitude change are foundational for making desired work culture changes. With these new attitude and skills, there develops a sense of personal responsibility to be part of the culture change itself, which reinforces the effort with other staff, and counters the feeling of helplessness that things have been and will always be as they are. Staff now see a way forward with culture transformation, especially when administration supports change.
Enjoy: when participants feel safe, relaxed and are enjoying themselves, they are more open and accepting of new ideas and information that challenge old thought patterns. This occurs organically because in this environment of safety, the amygdala (our self-defense organ in the brain] quiets and the hippocampus [learning and positive emotions) opens up to accept new information. When we are stressed, the amygdala stops information getting to the hippocampus, and thus learning is diminished or stopped altogether. This is why new training strategies include games like Jeopardy in their sessions.
The Training Model
The Immersive Experiential training model uses the principle of 4 E’s with its emotional intelligence training. The building blocks for this training are shown in Figure 1.
The foundation of affirmation, respect and caring creates trust and safety within which participants become more open and connection with self and others develops. Participants are able to see themselves and their behavior truthfully. From here, skills of communication and cooperation are taught developing a sense of hope that change is possible. Participants now have the attitude and skills to change themselves which gives them a sense of personal responsibility to make change. The end result of experiencing the immersive Experiential training is that they, in fact, are changed in the process and they see themselves and others in a new light. When participants see themselves more clearly, they see everything else, including other people, more clearly.
Immersive Experiential training is not about content, it is more about experience. Trying to change behavior and relationships by providing information is like teaching someone how to drive a car by having them read a book. It is not very effective. The person needs the hands-on experience of being behind the wheel. This is what immersive experiential training provides. It is 80% experiential and 20% lecture. Many of the experiences convey content in a better way than simply talking about it.
Whatever the training program, it needs to have two or three days focused on Immersive Experiential training early on. This will not only improve the experience of trainees for the rest of the training, but also prepare them with the attitude skills (self-awareness, empathy, personal responsibility, and emotional management) needed to advance them further into their career in corrections. These skills are sorely needed in correctional agencies today. This may not be the total answer, but it is clearly an important part of the answer to the isolation staff feel and thus, to our staffing crisis.
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John A. Shuford is regarded as a national leader of the immersion-experiential methodology of staff development training. He has had numerous feature articles published in Corrections Today over the past two decades. John has developed and delivered innovative staff development trainings for many governmental agencies. He has presented at numerous national and international conferences and has led international conflict resolution delegations to Russia, South Africa, and China, and provided trainings in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and in West and Southern Africa. He has been honored by the International Association of Correctional Training Personnel with their “2004 Award of Excellence” and their “2018 Award of Excellence.” Prior to retiring, John was Correctional Training Coordinator 2 with the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections. For more information, he can be contacted at john@teamcrs.org.
References
Clements, A.J., Kinman, G. “Wellbeing in UK prison officers: Key factors.” Special Edition: The health and wellbeing of prison staff, Prison Service Journal Issue 268, September 2023.
Murthy, V.N. “Our epidemic of loneliness and isolation: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the healing effects of social connection and community.” 2023