‘Really horrible nightmares’

Public safety and justice workers exposed to graphic materials detailing horrific crimes are at risk of suffering psychological injuries and therefore need better protections, says a federal union.

A report released Tuesday by the Union of Solicitor General Employees says more than three-quarters of public safety workers surveyed had experienced effects such as nightmares, insomnia, emotional or physical difficulties and marital problems. They included employees at prisons, RCMP detachments, courts and the Parole Board of Canada, doing jobs that routinely exposed them to violent criminal histories, victim statements and stomach-turning evidence.

“I’ve had some really, really horrible nightmares about some of the stuff that I’ve seen in pictures ... and this is a small town so these are pictures of things that have happened to people that I know,” a services assistant at an RCMP detachment told the researchers.

Stan Stapleton, the national union president and a former prison guard in Edmonton, compares the exposure to repetitive strain injury from using a computer mouse.

“We all recognize and are able to deal with the physical problems, but when it becomes psychological, and mental health, we have not done so well,” he said in an interview. The toll that witnessing trauma takes on frontline workers such as police, paramedics and firefighters is widely recognized, the union says. But it adds that public safety and justice workers behind the scenes receive almost no training or preparation, few protections and little recognition for their injuries.