Experts Gather to Address Physical, Mental Health Challenges Facing Workers
07/30/2019
Contact: Nancy Cicco, 978-934-4944 or Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu and Christine Gillette, 978-934-2209 or Christine_Gillette@uml.edu
Media Advisory
When: Thursday, Aug. 1
Where: 120 Tremont St., Suffolk University Law School, Sargent Hall, Boston
What: America’s 500,000 corrections officers have the worst health of any U.S. occupational group, with high rates of on-the-job injuries, suicide, obesity, hypertension and sleep disruption. Their life expectancy averages more than a decade less than those in other professions, according to research in multiple states.
The 2019 National Symposium on Corrections Worker Health will bring experts in worker health and safety together with representatives of the corrections field for a day-long event looking at the challenges facing those in the occupation on and off the job.
The symposium is being presented by the Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace (CPH-NEW), a joint project of the University of Massachusetts Lowell and the University of Connecticut, in partnership with Suffolk University, Northeastern University and Middlesex Sheriff’s Office.
Sessions at the daylong event will cover topics including correctional officer suicide in Massachusetts, interventions to support work-life balance and leading change in the field to benefit workers.
The occupational hazards facing corrections officers are compounded by a number of factors – including significant exposure to inmates with mental health and substance-abuse disorders, along with long hours resulting in inadequate sleep (75 percent reported six hours or less per night) – that can spill over into their home life, according to Mazen El Ghaziri, one of the conference’s lead organizers and assistant professor in UMass Lowell’s Solomont School of Nursing. He will be available for interviews on the challenges facing these workers from noon to 1 p.m.
Among the sessions at the symposium will be:
- “Health Challenges of life as a corrections officer” will feature a panel including El Ghaziri and representatives of the Connecticut and Pennsylvania departments of correction, Middlesex Sheriff’s Office Peer Support Program, the American Correctional Officer Intelligence Network and One Voice. 9:20 to 10:10 a.m.
- “Correctional Officer Suicide in Massachusetts” will feature new research findings – including that the suicide rate of corrections officers is five times higher than the national rate – by Carlos Monteiro, Suffolk University assistant professor of sociology, one of the symposium’s lead organizers, and Natasha Frost, associate dean for graduate studies in Northeastern University’s College of Social Sciences and Humanities. 11:15 to 11:35 a.m.
- “Leading Change – Perspectives of Corrections Administration” will feature a panel including Martin Cherniack, co-director of CPH-NEW and UConn Health Center professor of medicine, and representatives of the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office and the Connecticut, Missouri and North Dakota departments of correction. 3:15 to 4 p.m.