Help for officers with mental health illness is “sporadic”

POLICING needs to gain a better understanding of mental health illnesses so colleagues and supervisors can direct people to the help that’s available for them.

More than a million days of police officers’ time have been lost over the past three years because of mental health issues, figures obtained by ITV News shows. Steve Taylor, Chairman of Essex Police Federation, said help for officers was currently “sporadic”.

“We are starting to understand more and more the impact that poor mental health has on officers and I think we’re becoming better at diagnosing it,” said Steve.

“We have in place some really useful and powerful ways of improving mental health. But unfortunately it’s sporadic. In some parts of the force we have really clued up supervisors that signpost, get help to them who need it.

“But in others maybe we’re missing some of those signs because some of our colleagues don’t get that platinum service that other people in the force do. For me, it’s just about signposting at the early stages for our colleagues to get that right kind of help.

“Perhaps one of the ways that we can practically improve that is by all of us having that big conversation. Mental health isn’t a dirty phrase, and colleagues that suffer with mental health aren’t to be avoided or shunned simply because we don’t understand.

“We have to make it our business to understand so that we can help identify and then signpost people to the help that’s available for them.”