Training and Programs

If you are public safety agency and are interested in engaging the PIPPS team to conduct training or program in your agency, please contact the PIPPS Director, Associate Professor Jacqueline Drew (E: j.drew@griffith.edu.au).

Leader Programs

EMPOWER: Leaders Program.

The EMPOWER Leaders Program is a nationally recognised, evidence-based leadership development initiative for improving psychological health of police. The program addresses a critical capability gap in the sector: the need for police leaders to identify and manage psychosocial hazards and risks in accordance with new Australian workplace/occupational health and safety laws.

The EMPOWER Leaders Program is delivered across two workshops. The first workshop focuses on the psychological wellbeing of leaders themselves, positioning them as critical role models within their agencies. The second workshop builds leadership capability to identify psychosocial hazards and risks and works with leaders to co-design prevention-focused strategies to reduce harm and enhance team wellbeing.

Tailored to the unique cultural and operational context of policing, the program has achieved exceptional outcomes: 95% of participants rated it more impactful than prior leadership training and 93% endorsed the program’s police-specific approach. The program achieves strong uplift in leadership capabilities to better identify psychosocial hazards, understand risk, design controls and strategies to build healthier workplaces and to monitor impact of actions.

As one senior police leader noted: “We are grateful to Drs Drew and Keech for the significant contribution made by their research and program; it greatly contributes to the ongoing development of our people and organisation.”

EMPOWER: Emerging Leaders Program.

The Emerging Leaders Program addresses the unique pressures of frontline work, examining how organisational, operational, and trauma-related stress can accumulate over the course of a career and contribute to burnout and psychological distress. During the program, program participants explore what are the common workplace and personal drivers that result in reduced wellbeing and what influences willingness to take action to prevent and respond to stress. The program guides participants in building a greater awareness of their personal coping styles and consider the efficacy of wellbeing plans. Through guided reflection and discussion, the program challenges the idea that there is a single ‘right way’ to cope, encouraging a more flexible, personalised way to improve wellbeing. By helping emerging leaders understand their own stress responses and wellbeing strategies, the program lays a foundation for more authentic and resilient leadership in demanding environments and the role of leaders in positively influence the wellbeing of those who they lead. The program can be tailored for police, public safety, and disaster management personnel stepping into leadership roles.

EMPOWER: Staff Program.

The EMPOWER Staff Program is a 2-day face-to-face, police-specific workplace wellbeing initiative that goes beyond standard stress management. The program assists police personnel to identify psychosocial hazards in their work environment, hazards related to three key sources of stress: organisational, operational and trauma exposure. EMPOWER Staff equips program participants with skills to reduce harm at the individual, team, and organisational levels.

The EMPOWER Staff Program is delivered across two workshops. The program includes interactive workshops that focus on the identification of psychosocial hazards, assessment of workplace stressors, and development of practical strategies to improve wellbeing. Participants engage in guided activities to build personal coping plans, explore team-based solutions, and generate organisational strategies to reduce job demands and enhance support systems.

While traditional wellbeing programs focus on the individual, EMPOWER STAFF empowers staff to consider how to change the work, not just rely on the worker to respond to the impact of their work. Program evaluation data is positive with 98% of participants rating the program as more useful than any other wellbeing training they have previously attended. Participants reported significant improvements in recognising early signs of reduced wellbeing, developing concrete coping strategies, and feeling more confident in managing job stress.

One participant shared, “The information contained in the workshop was actually relevant to our role in police—it made it feel like we have been heard.”

The EMPOWER Staff Program is evidence-based, culturally competent, and designed specifically for police environments. The program strongly embraces the notion that it should not be about just surviving the job. The program takes the view that we all (individuals, teams and leaders) have a role to play in creating police workplaces that not only respond to the psychological impacts of police work but are ultimately designed to eliminate and mitigate workplace factors that we identify are causing harm.

EMPOWER: Peers Program.

The EMPOWER Peer Support Program can be tailored for police, public safety, and disaster management personnel. It supports wellbeing in these high-risk work environments. It introduces peer support as a practical approach that complements broader organisational responses to critical incidents and workplace stress. The program explores the scope of role and responsibilities of peer supporters, including boundaries and confidentiality. It builds knowledge supporting peers in bettering understand psychological distress, burnout, and suicide risk among colleagues, and teaches how to respond with effective, supportive communication. During the program, peers learn how to guide peers in developing practical wellbeing strategies and learn about how to manage their own wellbeing. This program fosters a culture of care, connection, and mutual support across frontline teams.

EMPOWER: Vicarious Trauma Program.

The program focuses the psychological impacts that might be experienced because of an individual’s indirect exposure to other people’s trauma. This is referred to as vicarious trauma. The session addresses how to optimise organisational resilience and minimise the risk of vicarious trauma amongst police, public safety and disaster management personnel. Program topics include: what is vicarious trauma; how to recognise its signs; and, how to prepare for and recover from vicarious trauma exposure. The session explores specific strategies to promote wellbeing.

Other Programs

We have a range of other programs we are available to deliver, these include:

• Suicide prevention;
• Embitterment in the workplace: How and why it develops;
• Identifying and supporting embittered staff: What leaders need to know;
• Supporting leaders in planning and having wellbeing conversations with staff;
• Understanding, preventing and managing burnout;
• Health behaviour change, understanding approaches to coping and developing coping plans
• Engaging and supporting women police in leadership;
• Designing workplaces to support gender equity in policing;
• Healthy workplaces for women in public safety