Mindfulness-Based Resiliency Training (MBRT): Preliminary Outcomes of a Program for Law Enforcement Personnel
Speaker: Michael Christopher, PhD; Brant Rogers, MS, RYT; Lt. Richard Goerling
Format: Audio & Slides

Objective: As first responders who are frequently exposed to job-related trauma, law enforcement personnel are at an elevated risk of adverse mental health outcomes. In this pilot study, we examined the effectiveness of an adapted MBSR program – Mindfulness-Based Resiliency Training (MBRT) – among a sample of law enforcement personnel. This 8-week mindfulness-based intervention addresses the stressors and challenges inherent to law enforcement culture in several ways, including by integrating more mindful movement related to police work and introducing discussion on issues related to law enforcement personnel.

Methods: 24 law enforcement personnel agreed to participate in this pilot study. Data were collected pre-MBRT, mid-MBRT, and post-MBRT and included self-report measures of general stress, police stress, mental health, physical health, mindfulness, self-care, emotional IQ, sleep quality, anger, resiliency, and burnout. Prospective data on absenteeism and critical incidents will be collected over the next 6 months.

Results: Repeated measures one-way ANOVAs and contrast tests (with corrected p values) were used to identify differences in functioning at each time interval (i.e., pre-MBRT versus mid-MBRT; mid-MBRT versus post- MBRT) for all outcome measures. Participants endorsed improvements in a variety of domains after the 8-week MBRT course, including several aspects of mindfulness (nonreactivity [p < .001, d = .98], acting with awareness [p = .005, d = .77], and mindful process [p = .003, d = .68]), resiliency (p = .002, d = .83), emotional IQ (p < . 001, d = 1.01), general stress (p = .002, d = .96), mental health (p = .003, d = .66), and anger (p = .002, d = .87).

Conclusions: These preliminary findings provide promising support for MBRT. We recently began a second round of data collection, using more sophisticated methods (i.e., wait-list control group) and biomarkers of stress (i.e., salivary cortisol) to further test the effectiveness of MBRT.