Exploring occupational stress and the perceptions of a canine-assisted intervention in law-enforcement personnel : a case study
department or school: Education, School of (Okanagan)
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCO
creator: Green, Freya Loren Louise
issued: 2020-07-28T20:41:55Z
issued: 2020
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Despite the increasing popularity of canine-assisted interventions (CAIs) across a variety of contexts, and the demonstrated efficacy CAIs have on stress reduction, there is a paucity of literature that has examined the effects of such programs within the context of law-enforcement. Policing is known to be an environment in which personnel experience elevates occupational stress (Ménard & Arter, 2013; Ranta & Sud, 2008). As stress can be influential in the overall well-being of members and their ability to serve the public, it is important to establish and integrate effective stress-reduction strategies within detachment settings. To address these needs, this qualitative study explored the experiences of stress within members, and a CAI integrated within an urban RCMP detachment. Eight RCMP members (75% female, Mage = 49.21, SD = 6.12) from an urban RCMP detachment situated in the downtown core of a small city, were interviewed. The interview focused on topics including members’ experiences of stress within the workplace, their perceptions of the effects of stress, resources and sources of support, and their experiences of a weekly CAI within their detachment. Results indicate that organizational stressors were identified more often than operational stressors; that members most commonly report stress making them more irritable and affecting their sleep; and that the most commonly reported coping mechanism and resource are exercise and medical services, respectively. In discussing the CAI, participants were overwhelmingly positive in their experiences of the program, and demonstrated support for having CAIs within the detachment setting. Discussion of the impact of the sessions demonstrated that participants found that the program served as a break from work, relieved their stress, improved their mood, and helped them to change perspectives. Participants also identified the role of the dogs within the program, which included their role as a social entity. The finding…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/75299
note: i EXPLORING OCCUPATIONAL STRESS AND THE PERCEPTIONS OF A CANINE-ASSISTED INTERVENTION IN LAW-ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL: A CASE STUDY by Freya Loren Louise Green B.A. University of British Columbia – Okanagan Campus, British Columbia, Canada, 2017 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Education) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) June 2020 © Freya Loren Louise Green, 2020 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis/dissertation entitled: Exploring Occupational Stress and Perceptions of a Canine-Assisted Intervention in Law-enforcement Personnel: A Case Study submitted by Freya Loren Louise Green in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in Education. Dr. John-Tyler Binfet, Okanagan School of Education Supervisor Dr. Margaret MacIntyre Latta, Okanagan School of Education Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Sabre Cherkowski, Okanagan School of Education Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Rachelle Hole, Okanagan School of Social Work University Examiner iii ABSTRACT Despite the increasing popularity of canine-assisted interventions (CAIs) across a variety of contexts, and the demonstrated efficacy CAIs have on stress reduction, there is a paucity of literature that has examined the effects of such programs within the context of law-enforcement. Policing is known to be an environment in which personnel experience elevates occupational stress (Ménard & Arter, 2013; Ranta & Sud, 2008). As stress can be influential in the overall well-being of members and their ability to serve the public, it is important to establish and integrate effective stress-reduction strategies within detachment settings. To address these needs, this qualitative study explored the experiences of stress within members, and a CAI integrated within an urban RCMP detachment. Eight RCMP membe…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2020-09
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0392566
language: eng
degree discipline: Education
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/75299