New ways needed to support police officer mental health

THE money from the new National Police Welfare Service should be used to create some new and inventive ways of helping remove the stigma and tackle the problem in policing.

That’s the view of Essex Police Federation Chairman Steve Taylor who was reacting to the news of the 7.5m welfare fund from the Government over the next three years.

Figures in Essex show that – over the past year – 165 police officers fell ill with stress, while 67 reported depression and 53 were suffering from anxiety. Twelve Essex Police officers had to take time off to recover from PTSD – bringing it to a total of 297 officers falling ill.

Across the Country 9,267 UK police officers have taken time off with mental health illnesses in the last year – that’s a 47% increase on the number of officers taking time off for stress, anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder in the past 5 years. And represents around one in 15 of the country’s officers.

The National Police Welfare Service will initially be tested as a pilot and, subject to its success, be rolled out to all 43 forces between 2018 and 2020.

Steve said: “I think any help that our colleagues can get towards helping our members at work, particularly around mental health, is welcomed. Essex has taken some big strides in this direction which is really pleasing.

“I think it’s really important that we’ve got funds available. I’d like to see forces using their initiative with how best to use that fund.

“In Essex, we have health and wellbeing symposiums, not only for officers going through that type of crisis, but for their managers and supervisors, so that we can remove that horrible stigma that mental health still has in our forces.

“But interestingly, looking at forces like Lincolnshire – they have decided to allocate additional annual leave for officers with mental health and wellbeing issues. So, some of it is already being worked on but I’d love to see this money used to create some new and inventive ways of helping remove the stigma and tackle the problem.”

Steve added that he would be “keen to ensure that that £7.5 million was actually spent on police officers and their mental health, and not shared amongst other emergency services or the military.”

He concluded: “Whilst I’m sure they can make a case themselves, I would want to see that money spent on police officers.”

According to the Home Office, plans for the National Police Welfare Service will be developed over the coming months by the College of Policing, working very closely with Police Federation.