A Participatory Action Research Approach to Mental Health Interventions among Corrections Officers: Standardizing Priorities and Maintaining Design Autonomy.

A central dilemma in Participatory Action Research (PAR) is to establish participant decision authority on interventions while adhering to rigorous research practices. We faced this dilemma as part of an ongoing multi-site field research project in the corrections sector, where semi-autonomous union-based Design Teams (DTs) address worker health issues and design interventions. Employee focus groups and surveys elicited areas of concern, pointing to four topics in particular: overtime and sleep, work-family balance, physical fitness, and mental health; these were later expanded to eight priority areas. Quantitative rankings were generated by focus groups of line-level employees and supervisors. A multi-level, iterative priority selection process averaged focus group ratings of topic importance and also difficulty to address separately. Areas of job stress and mental health had highest importance but were also considered most difficult to address. A labor-management steering committee reviewed and endorsed the rankings and transmitted these to newly formed DTs. In principle, each DT was free to establish a different topic for initial intervention but they all chose the most important and difficult to address topics. This structured multi-tiered participatory process preserved ownership by all parties. Balancing participant autonomy and efficient prioritization of topics among multiple interest groups in this PAR effort met research methods needs and also made it easier for DTs to focus on the difficult and stigmatized area of mental health in the correctional workforce.