Mindfulness and meditation have gained increasing interest across society. They have moved from niche interests to mainstream activities. While the evidence continues to increase for the individual benefits of mindfulness training (particularly for people with specific health conditions), the evidence of wellbeing and performance benefits in the workplace has been less prominent.
To address this gap and find ways to improve police wellbeing, The College of Policing (in partnership with workplace wellbeing researchers at the University of East Anglia) explored the effects of online mindfulness training for police officers and staff. This large randomised controlled trial (RCT) involved over 1,300 police employees across five forces. These included employees who faced potentially dangerous and traumatic events on a regular basis, creating a potentially challenging environment in which to improve wellbeing. The police employees were offered one of two different online mindfulness training apps and the impact on their wellbeing was compared to a control group who had not done any training.
The trial showed that online mindfulness training can improve the wellbeing of police officers and staff. Wellbeing, life satisfaction, resilience and performance improved on average in the mindfulness training group compared to the waiting list control group who did not receive training.
Find out more on the College of Policing’s website here: https://whatworks.college.police.uk/About/News/Pages/Mindfulness.aspx
and download the full report here: https://whatworks.college.police.uk/Research/Documents/Mindfulness_RCT_report.pdf