Operational Stress Injuries

Suicides have become a very significant issue in the Canadian military in recent years, and historians Matthew Barrett and Allan English remind us that there have been more deaths by suicides in the Canadian Armed Forces since 2002 than mission deaths in the twelve years Canada was engaged in the war in Afghanistan. However, the authors maintain that this is not a new concern, and that over the years, a number of cases “… have come to public attention, especially those during or immediately after a major conflict in which Canada has been involved.” They use two case studies, one centering on the immediate aftermath of the First World War, and a more contemporary one from the Afghanistan conflict to help assess how public attitudes towards mental stress injuries and suicides involving Canadian servicepersons changed during the course of each conflict. Barrett and English then “… assess how destigmatization efforts might be improved by using historical evidence, and how this knowledge could be leveraged to help facilitate a more productive and open dialogue about mental health and suicide in the military.”

Even though it has been over 20 years since Spence and Robbins (1992) first showed perfectionism and workaholism to be closely related, the relationship between perfectionism and workaholism is still under-researched. In particular, it has remained unclear why perfectionism is linked to workaholism. Using data from 131 employees, this study—examining self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism—investigated whether intrinsic-extrinsic work motivation could explain the positive relationship between perfectionism and workaholism. Whereas socially prescribed perfectionism was unrelated to workaholism, self-oriented perfectionism showed a positive correlation with workaholism. Furthermore autonomous (integrated and identified regulation) and controlled (introjected and external regulation) work motivation showed positive correlations. However, when all predictors were entered in a regression analysis, only self-oriented perfectionism, identified regulation, and introjected regulation positively predicted workaholism. In addition, a mediation analysis showed that identified and introjected regulation fully mediated the effect of self-oriented perfectionism on workaholism. The findings suggest that high levels of work motivation explain why many self-oriented perfectionists are workaholic.

Operational Stress Injury: The Hidden Impact Of Service To Your Country provides a detailed look at operational stress injuries, a term used to describe persistent psychological difficulty resulting from operational duties. While a relatively new concept, it signifies the increased awareness surrounding the mental health of those in service-related fields such as law enforcement, combat and healthcare. The chapters delve into the history of Operational Stress Injuries, their symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and impact on society.

Correctional work is characterized by high rates of occupational stress, which can produce
a plethora of negative outcomes for the officers employed within such institutions. The present
study examines Canadian provincial correctional officers’ perceptions of how occupational stress
is created within the context of their employment. Through in-depth interviews with 11
correctional officers, I examine the political, organizational, and cultural factors that are perceived
to negatively affect employee stress and well-being. From this analysis, I present three principal
arguments. First, I uncover how correctional officers perceive ministerial policies to be loosely
coupled from frontline practices. I argue that this loose coupling can create occupational stress, as
correctional officers may experience frustration in navigating daily tasks in accordance with orders
that they perceive to be irrelevant or impractical. Second, I argue that occupational stress that is
connected to ministerial policies can be further amplified by institutional managers, as ministry
guidelines are enforced within institutional operations. Further, I contend that officers perceive
institutional supervisors to normalize traumatic and stressful events that occur in the line of duty.
Third, I examine how the occupational culture exhibited within correctional work, which reflects
notions of hegemonic masculinity, maintains the potential to trivialize occupational stress. I argue
that this occupational culture places emphasis on the adoption of physical, psychological, and
emotional strength, which may lead officers to perceive colleagues struggling with occupational
stress or mental health concerns in a negative manner.

The tribological behaviour of ductile iron heat-treated by two different procedures viz. quenching and tempering, and austempering to an identical matrix hardness of 445 KHN is compared. Wear tests were carried out using a pin-on-disc type apparatus under dry sliding conditions at a linear speed of 1.18 m s -1. Applied load and sliding distance in the range of 7.5-30 N and 2x10 4-6x10 4 m, respectively, were used. It was observed that under all test conditions, austempered ductile iron exhibits a better wear resistance than quenched and tempered ductile iron, although both have an identical chemical composition and matrix hardness. The relative superiority of austempered ductile iron becomes even more pronounced at higher load and longer sliding distance. Microhardness measurement below the wear scar reveals that the hardness of austempered ductile iron increases while that of quenched and tempered iron decreases during the wear process. Metallographic study of the worn surfaces and X-ray investigation on wear debris indicate that oxidational wear is operative in both the samples. Stress-induced martensitic transformation of retained austenite as well as strain hardening of bainitic ferrite are thought to contribute to the improved wear performance of austempered ductile iron. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved. The tribological behaviour of ductile iron heat-treated by two different procedures viz. quenching and tempering, and austempering to an identical matrix hardness of 445 KHN is compared. Wear tests were carried out using a pin-on-disc type apparatus under dry sliding conditions at a linear speed of 1.18 m s -1. Applied load and sliding distance in the range of 7.5-30 N and 2×10 4-6×10 4 m, respectively, were used. It was observed that under all test conditions, austempered ductile iron exhibits a better wear resistance than quenched and tempered ductile iron, although both have an identical chemical composition and matrix hardness. The relative superiority of austempered ductile iron becomes even more pronounced at higher load and longer sliding distance. Microhardness measurement below the wear scar reveals that the hardness of austempered ductile iron increases while that of quenched and tempered iron decreases during the wear process. Metallographic study of the worn surfaces and X-ray investigation on wear debris indicate that oxidational wear is operative in both the samples. Stress-induced martensitic transformation of retained austenite as well as strain hardening of bainitic ferrite are thought to contribute to the improved wear performance of austempered ductile iron.


http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004316480000404X

This paper will present a systematic literature review on patient handling activities. It reports selected findings from the search results of over 1,000 papers. Patient handling activities, as primary or secondary tasks, are carried out by staff throughout the health care industry. Over the last 20 years a number of guidance publications have been published. These have been used operationally throughout the health care industry to guide clinical practice, and additionally as reference texts for expert opinion in legal proceedings. To date there has ...

After investing significant amounts of time and money in conducting formal risk assessments, such as root cause analysis (RCA) or failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), healthcare workers are left to their own devices in generating high-quality risk control options. They often experience difficulty in doing so, and tend toward an overreliance on administrative controls (the weakest category in the hierarchy of risk controls). This has important implications for patient safety and the cost effectiveness of risk management operations. This paper describes a before and after pilot study of the Generating Options for Active Risk Control (GO-ARC) technique, a novel tool to improve the quality of the risk control options generation process. The quantity, quality (using the three-tiered hierarchy of risk controls), variety, and novelty of risk controls generated. Use of the GO-ARC technique was associated with improvement on all measures. While this pilot study has some notable limitations, it appears that the GO-ARC technique improved the risk control options generation process. Further research is needed to confirm this finding. It is also important to note that improved risk control options are a necessary, but not sufficient, step toward the implementation of more robust risk controls.

This paper examines the value of participatory approaches within interventions aimed at promoting mental health and wellbeing in the workplace. Specifically the paper explores data from the thematic evaluation of the Mental Health and Employment project strand within the Altogether Better programme being implemented in England in the Yorkshire and Humber region, which was funded through the BIG Lottery and aimed to empower people across the region to lead better lives. The evaluation combined a systematic evidence review with semi-structured interviews across mental health and employment projects. Drawing on both evaluation elements, the paper examines the potential of workplace-based 'business champions' to facilitate organizational culture change within enterprises within a deprived regional socio-economic environment. First, the paper identifies key policy drivers for interventions around mental health and employment, summarizes evidence review findings and describes the range of activities within three projects. The role of the 'business champion' emerged as crucial to these interventions and therefore, secondly, the paper examines how champions' potential to make a difference depends on the work settings and their existing roles, skills and motivation. In particular, champions can proactively coordinate project strands, embed the project, encourage participation, raise awareness, encourage changes to work procedures and strengthen networks and partnerships. The paper explores how these processes can facilitate changes in organizational culture. Challenges of implementation are identified, including achieving leverage with senior management, handover of ownership to fellow employees, assessing impact and sustainability. Finally, implications for policy and practice are discussed, and conclusions drawn concerning the roles of champions within different workplace environments.