Identification and measurement of work-related psychological injury: piloting the psychological injury risk indicator among frontline police.
OBJECTIVE
To develop a self-report measure of work-related psychological injury, the Psychological Injury Risk Indicator (PIRI), with a comparable level of accuracy and reliability to individual clinical assessment by a skilled clinical psychologist.


METHODS
Two pilot studies investigated the responses of a) 34 frontline police officers completing the PIRI measure who were also examined by a highly experienced clinical psychologist and b) 217 officers who completed the PIRI measure and also the General Health Questionnaire 12 measure.


RESULTS
The PIRI scale identified both the presence and the level of psychological injury in the clinical group with a remarkably high level of correspondence to concurrent clinical assessment (r = 0.80).


CONCLUSIONS
The PIRI scale can be used both for the individual assessment of psychological injury and as a potential online screening tool. Its latter use is that it could enable the early identification of evolving psychological injury among workers, facilitating timely and career-preserving intervention.
Winwood
Peter C
PC
Work and Stress Research Group, Centre for Applied Psychological Research, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia 5073, Australia. peter.winwood@unisa.edu.au
Tuckey
Michelle R
MR
Peters
Roger
R
Dollard
Maureen F
MF
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D001315:Australia; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D016272:Occupational Health; D010865:Pilot Projects; D016495:Police; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires