Law Enforcement Officers’ Barriers to Seeking Mental Health Services: a Scoping Review

Law enforcement officers (LEOs) experience stressful and traumatic events more often than the general population. Though these events negatively impact mental health and wellbeing, LEOs experience barriers to seeking psychological therapy and support to address these emotional burdens. This scoping review asks the question “What are the factors preventing law enforcement officers from seeking mental health services?”. Eligibility criteria included literature focusing on Canadian and United States LEO access and willingness to participate in mental health interventions. Using PubMed, PsycNet, and Scopus, we found 17 publications on this topic. We charted the data using components of grounded theory and uncovered components of the social cognitive theory’s role in accessing services. Overall, LEOs mental health services utilization barriers include negative perceptions and low mental health knowledge, concerns of confidentiality and job consequences, and lack of social support. Interventions can be developed at the environmental, behavioral, and individual levels to address these complex factors preventing LEOs seeking mental health services.