Correctional officers' mental health app

Correctional Officers (COs) work in intense environments. These individuals are expected to be the safety net for incarcerated individuals, fellow COs, and themselves over 12-hour shifts. COs are expected to respond to a range of emergencies in the cell house, including inmates harming themselves, fights, or worse, such as murder. After working these long shifts, COs have to cope with their emotions. There are limited resources for COs to care for their mental health, yet they are still expected to show up to work and address situations wherein an inmate or staff member may have been injured or killed. After addressing these traumatic situations, COs are expected to resume their regular duties as if nothing happened. Existing mental health apps do not target the needs of COs; COs are experiencing trauma that only other COs who work in corrections can understand. The existing apps only provide resources for the general public and do not have resources that can benefit from traumatic experiences in corrections. To address the gap, I created a mobile prototype to provide essential mental health resources tailored for COs based on their experiences during an average shift. With a literature review, I was able to understand the work of COs and their mental health struggles. Both a competitive analysis and the literature review provided insights on mental health resource designs. The competitive analysis specifically explored existing mental health and first-responder apps to identify key features that each offers. These key features were journaling, listening to music, reading, and monitoring emotions. The application prototype focuses on a simple, accessible interface to provide support to users so that they feel understood. This prototype provides one potential avenue for COs to do their best work and maintain their mental health, with resources that give COs the chance to give their mind a break from work or begin to unpack the emotions they experience on and off the job.