Forecasting the mental traumatization risk among law enforcement officers during the COVID-19 pandemic

Relevance. The COVID-19 pandemic is a global stress factor associated with psycho-pathological symptoms in many people, including police officers performing their professional duties in this extreme situation. For timely prevention of mental disorders and rehabilitation activities, it is important to predict risks of mental traumatization.

Intention – To develop an algorithm for predicting mental traumatization risks in employees of Internal Affairs Bodies (IAB) during the high alert period (HAP) due to potential emergency associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methodology. Multidimensional mathematical modeling was used based on the mental traumatization factors assessed via experimental psychological examination and remote questioning. In 2020, 371 employees of the Main Directorate, Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in Moscow were examined. All the examined employees were divided into three groups according to their involvement in disease.

Results and Discussion. It is shown that the mental traumatization during the COVID-19 pandemic is influenced by professional, social and psychological factors, taking into account the involvement-in-disease criterion. Using the logistic regression, an equation was constructed for predicting mental traumatization risks associated with professional activities during the pandemic in police officers. The accuracy of predictions was 91.6 %.

Conclusion. Based on the data obtained, it is possible to develop differentiated preventive and rehabilitation measures for IAB employees in HAP conditions. The method can be used during routine psycho-prevention examinations of police officers in the Mental Health Centers of the Medical and Sanitary units, Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia to predict the mental traumatization.

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