“This is me removing my mask”: understanding stigma and cultural barriers to mental health support among US police officers, a qualitative study

Purpose This qualitative study explores Midwest, USA law enforcement officers' perspectives on mental health, job-related stress and the accessibility and effectiveness of available wellness resources. Design/methodology/approach Thirty-seven officers participated in confidential, semi-structured phone interviews. Thematic analysis was conducted by three researchers across four rounds of coding to ensure depth, rigor, and inter-rater reliability. Findings Key themes included pervasive mental health stigma, maladaptive and adaptive coping, barriers to help-seeking and leadership involvement. Officers emphasized the need for flexible, non-punitive mental health resources, including internal and external programs. Recommendations include expanding culturally competent, incentive-driven mental health supports; integrating mental health conversations into daily operations; securing funding for dedicated wellness staff and evaluators; sustained funding for law enforcement mental health and wellness initiatives, and specific mental health resources deemed helpful by participants. Research limitations/implications These findings contribute to the growing research that addresses the mental health crisis among police officers across the globe. They provide key insight into police officers' own, at times vulnerable, perspectives. Practical implications These findings highlight the urgent need to normalize mental health support and create diverse, proactive, stigma-reducing strategies within police agencies. Social implications This study underscores the urgent social need to reduce stigma around mental health in policing and promote a culture that encourages emotional well-being. Amplifying officer voices reveals how current structures often isolate officers and deter help-seeking, which can harm families, communities and workplace morale. The findings call for systemic changes that can strengthen officer resilience, improve public trust and support safer, more sustainable policing. Originality/value This research offers a rare, in-depth look at police officers' own narratives about mental health, collected through confidential interviews and analyzed with a rigorously collaborative coding process. Its focus on officers' lived experiences across gender and rank, including female perspectives often overlooked in policing research, adds a unique and underrepresented dimension to the study of law enforcement wellness.