Drawing from extensive research in Australia and United States, it is argued the lack of progress in addressing high rates of police mental health and wellbeing concerns is partly attributable to the predominate focus on trauma experiences. Organisational and operational job demands also have significant and pervasive impacts on police wellbeing. This is even the case in areas commonly considered high-risk due to trauma exposure. Few, if any, police wellbeing programs address the full scope of job demands. For this reason, the EMPOWER Wellbeing program was created. The program focuses on increasing skills of police personnel and their leaders in eliminating or reducing demands from trauma, organisational systems and policies (organisational stressors), and the work environment itself (operational stressors). The program was delivered to a group of police detectives drawn from child abuse and sexual crimes, homicide, and child investigation and protection units in Queensland Police Service.

During the program, detectives worked collaboratively to identify job demands, they considered workplace and job resources that might counteract workplace stress, and they developed proactive wellbeing plans. The presentation provides the findings of a comprehensive evaluation of the EMPOWER program. Over 90% of detectives reported that the culturally competent program delivered by experts in police psychology made the program one of the most valuable they had attended in their police career. The knowledge and skills developed through the program improved the ability of detectives to identify causes of their workplace stress and to engage in earlier identification of signs of poor psychological health. During the program, detectives generated proactive solutions for improving wellbeing beyond just individual responsibility and waiting until after harm has already occurred. Solutions at the team and broader organisational level were explored as an alternate approach that focuses on prevention – change or modify the work, not just the worker!