“Cura te ipsum”: Healthy public safety leaders for healthy organizations

Abstract

Our objective was to complete a systematic review on the mental health and wellness of public safety service leaders. We worked to refine a search strategy that would enable us to identify material about the mental health of public safety leaders; we were left with tens of thousands of potential articles for review, with virtually no evidence of relevant material. In response, we outline emergent patterns through our efforts to synthesize the literature, drawing attention to the dominant areas of leadership research: leaders supporting, creating, and being responsible for a culture of mental health for their workforce, without themselves being seen as part of that workforce – people who also require support. We highlight the limited international scholarship tied to public safety leadership styles, responsibilities, and mental health, then draw attention to leadership needs, particularly the need for more research on public safety leaders given their isolation and the complex, liability-laced, political, and personally difficult space they occupy. We recommend future research and targeted intervention to preserve and even improve leadership health. Our impetus remains in how leaders too need support to have their own unique health needs met if they are to lead efforts that preserve the wellness of members and the functioning of their organization. Thus, they require tailored interventions.