Table 2.

CTP pretest survey details

Questionnaire section/number of questions	Topics
Demographics
Demographics/31	Prior correctional work experience; reasons for joining CSC; prior PSP work experience; current employment status; current province/territory of residence; intended province/territory of deployment; year of birth; biological sex; gender identity; sexual orientation; educational attainment; ethnicity; religious affiliation; language knowledge; marital status; household income; and children.
Workplace concerns
Fear of correctionalwork/4	Fear and concerns regarding correctional work. This topic consists of four ‘made-in-house’ open-ended questions that request participant to discuss their fears of working in prison and with individuals who were convicted to more than 2 years.
Fear of correctional work/4
Mental health knowledge
CRF-MHSUQ/6	CAF Recruit Mental Health Service Use Questionnaire (CAF-R-MHSUQ),42 which assesses knowledge of mental health, particularly instrumental attitudes (ie, whether mental health service is a good or a bad thing) and affective attitudes (ie, how mental health service will feel); subjective norms; perceived self-efficacy (ie, expectations around how easy or difficult mental health services would be and confidence that one can overcome difficulties) and perceived control (ie, perceived control over the performance of the behaviour); and mental health service intentions with seven, six, nine and four items, respectively. The psychometric evaluation of the CAF-R-MHSUQ is ongoing.
Mental health training
Occupational mental health training and education/5	Training on mental health support that participants may have received during their lifetime is assessed through 5 ‘made-in-house’ closed-ended questions that explore if participants have received training, what kind of training they have received (e.g.: Critical Incident Stress Management, Critical Incident Stress Debriefing, Mental Health First Aid, Peer Support, Road to Mental Readiness and Understanding and Responding to Inmates with Mental Health Disorders, and whether the training received was helpful for improving their mental health and the mental health of their team, reducing stigma, mitigating OSIs, increasing their knowledge of mental health and helping them to respond to inmates/clients with mental health problems.
Emotional regulation
Emotion regulation/1	The Emotional Regulation Questionnaire,43 a 10-item scale designed to measure respondents’ tendency to regulate their emotions through ‘cognitive reappraisal’ and ‘expressive suppression’. Participants answer each item on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The scoring takes the average of all the scores in each subscale of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Higher the score, greater the use of a particular emotion regulation strategy, conversely lower scores represent less frequent use.
Support network
Social Support and Family (SPS, DAS-4)/6	Perceived social support is assessed with the Social Provisions Scale-10 (SPS),44 which is a 10-item short form; higher scores can be interpreted as having higher levels of social support. Cronbach’s alpha of 0.88. Marital satisfaction is assessed with the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS-4),45 which contains four items: three of which are on a 6-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (all the time) to 5 (never), while the final item is on a seven-point scale ranging from 0 (extremely happy) to 6 (perfect); higher the score, greater the satisfaction/adjustment, conversely lower scores represent less adjustment. Cronbach’s alpha is usually around 0.96.
Chronic pain
Former PSP – other health conditions – chronic pain questionnaire/6	Chronic pain frequency and severity (ie, intensity and duration) at different bodily locations with the Chronic Pain Grade Questionnaire is a seven-item instrument designed to evaluate overall severity of chronic pain based on two dimensions, pain intensity and pain-related disability in individuals who suffer from chronic pain that has lasted for at least 6 months.46 Items are scored on an 11-point Likert scale, with responses ranging from 0 to 10. Scores are interpreted according to three subscales (characteristic pain intensity, disability score and the disability points score), which classify subjects into one of the five pain severity grades: grade 0 for no pain, grade I for low disability-low intensity, grade II for low disability-high intensity, grade III for high disability-moderately limiting and grade IV for high disability-severely limiting. Cronbach’s alpha is usually around 0.90.
Risk factors
Risk factors/4	Victimisation, using the Childhood Experiences of Violence Questionnaire, which is an 18-item self-report measure of victimisation in seven categories (peer-on-peer violence, witnessing domestic violence, emotional abuse, physical punishment, physical abuse and sexual abuse). It also gathers information on perpetrators, severity, onset, duration and disclosure of abuse.47 Higher the score, greater victimisation, conversely lower scores represent less victimisation.
COVID-19
COVID-19 operational/4	COVID-19 impact on job routine, work responsibilities, occupational risks, drug in prison, access to PPE and family members (eg, transmissibility to family members). This topic includes ‘made-in-house’ matrix questions with 5-point Likert scales and open questions.
COVID-19 Stress Scale/3	COVID-19 related concerns involving getting infected, keeping family safe, challenges faced by the healthcare system to deliver services, hygiene habits, commuting/travelling issues, logistics and supply issues (eg, foodstuff and medicine), foreigners, as well as stresses resulting from the pandemic and knowledge of COVID-19. This topic includes ‘made-in-house’ matrix questions with 5-point Likert scales and open questions.
Other
Ethics protocols/4	Questions related to ethics protocols (eg, consent) and research feedback.
Mental health disorders (screening)
Event exposure – PCL-5/13	PTSD is assessed using the PTSD Check List 5 (PCL-5),48 which is a commonly used self-report tool that assesses 20 symptoms of PTSD as outlined in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM-5).49 Respondents are asked to rate how bothered they have been by each of 20 items in the past month on a five-point scale (0=not at all; 1=a little bit; 2=moderately; 3=quite a bit; 4=extremely). Items are summed to provide a total severity score ranging from 0 to 80. A positive screen for PTSD on the PCL-5 requires participants to meet minimum criteria for each PTSD cluster and exceed the minimum total score of >32. Cronbach’s alpha usually ranges from 0.56 to 0.77. Mean interitem correlations for the PCL-5 range from 0.22 to 0.73.
Depression – PHQ-9 and Suicide Assessment/21	Major depressive disorder (MDD) symptoms are assessed using the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9).50 The PHQ-9 is a nine-item questionnaire that asks individuals to rate how often symptoms of MDD have bothered them in the past 2 weeks on a three-point scale (0=not at all; 1=several days; 2=more than half the days; 3=nearly every day). The total score can range from 0 to 27, with higher scores indicating greater MDD symptom severity. MDD symptom severity can be categorised based on score as none (0–4), mild (5–9), moderate (10–14), moderately severe (15–19) or severe (20–27). A positive screen for MDD on the PHQ-9 requires a total score >9. Cronbach’s alpha usually ranges from 0.422 to 0.698. Mean interitem correlations for the PHQ-9 range from 0.200 to 0.622.
Panic Disorder Questions – PDSS-SR/10	Panic Disorder (PD) using the Panic Disorders Symptoms Severity Scale – Self-Report (PDSS-SR), a seven-item questionnaire that asks individuals to rate their symptoms on a five-point scale (0=never; 1=occasionally; 2=half of the time; 3=most of the time and 4=all of the time).51 The total score can range from 0 to 40, with higher scores indicating greater PD symptom severity. A positive screen for PD on the PDSS-SR requires a total score >7. Cronbach’s alpha is usually around 0.92.
Generalised anxiety disorder – GAD-7/1	Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms are assessed with General Anxiety Disorder 7-Item Scale (GAD-7).52 The GAD-7 is a seven-item questionnaire that asks individuals to rate how often symptoms of GAD have bothered them in the past 2 weeks on a three-point scale (0=not at all; 1=several days; 2=more than half the days; 3=nearly every day). The total score can range from 0 to 27, with higher scores indicating greater GAD symptom severity. A positive screen for GAD requires a total score >9. Cronbach’s alpha is usually around 0.89.
History of anxiety and mood disorders/17	History of anxiety and mood disorders is assessed through a combination of open-ended and closed-ended questions, 17 in total, that ask participants to report any history of diagnosis, age of diagnosis, professional providing the diagnosis, response to treatment and general feelings and experiences with treatment. There are five questions about anxiety, five questions about specific mood disorders (ie, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder and cyclothymic), five questions about any mental health disorder that is not an anxiety or mood disorder and two questions about feelings and experiences undergoing treatment. These questions were designed by R N Carleton, S Duranceau and D LeBouthillier from the University of Regina (Canada).
Alcohol use and smoking/10	Risky (hazardous) alcohol use is assessed with the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT).53 The AUDIT items area consistent with ICD-10 definitions of alcohol dependence and harmful alcohol use. The AUDIT is a 10-item questionnaire where individuals are asked to describe their alcohol use on a 3- or 5-point scale, depending on the item. The total score can range from 0 to 40, with higher scores indicating greater alcohol use risk. A positive screen for problematic alcohol use requires a total score >15.
Cannabis use disorder/11	The Cannabis Use Disorder Identification Test - Revised (CUDIT-R)54 is a brief, eight-item screening instrument designed to identify problematic or harmful use within the past 6 months. Individuals are asked to describe their cannabis use on a four-point scale (0–4) that measures cannabis use frequency. The CUDIT-R diagnostic criteria are aligned with the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM-5)49; however, the DSM-5 now classified abuse, dependence, and substance use disorders along a continuum of severity based on the number of symptoms. Scores of 8 or more indicate hazardous cannabis use, while score of 12 or more indicate a possible cannabis use disorder.
SR1 and PNC/7	Different kinds of help participants received, or thought they needed, for problems with emotions, mental health or use of alcohol or drugs. Closed-ended, these questions are from two sections of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), namely, the Mental Health Services (SR1) and the Perceived Need for Care (PNC) section.55 These questions explore types of help/resources received (eg, hospitalisation, psychiatrist, family doctor or general practitioner, psychologist, nurse, social worker, counsellor or psychotherapist, family member, friend, coworker, supervisor or boss), frequency with which participants accessed those help/resources, reason for stopping accessing them and their effectiveness.
BRS/1	Resilience (ie, the ability to bounce back or recover from stressors) is assessed with the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS).56 The BRS is a six-item questionnaire where individuals are asked to decide how much they agree or disagree with each item using a five-point scale (1=strongly disagree; 2=disagree; 3=neutral; 4=agree; 5=strongly agree). The total score can range from 6 to 30, with higher scores indicating greater perceptions of resilience.

ICD-10, International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition; OSIs, occupational stress injuries; PPE, personal protective equipment; PSP, public safety personnel; PTSD, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.