Psychological distress and illness are commonplace among emergency-service workers, with significant repercussions for ongoing employment; in some cases, even ending careers. Accordingly, as early as the First World War, many initiatives have tried to reduce this, including screening for potentially vulnerable individuals. Effectiveness of such screening is reported as being mixed. For example, Iraq-bound US soldiers screened prior to deployment had lower evacuation rates for depression or suicidal ideation; but this was not replicated in UK-based research, which found poor predictive validity. A 2010 systematic review into the effectiveness of screening of NHS staff also found no evidence of ability to assess fitness for work or predict sickness absence~1. Would a new study of pre-employment psychological testing of police recruits show more positive evidence that screening can work~2?
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