THE police service cannot \u201cbury its head in the sand\u201d over the crucial issue of police officers taking their own lives, Essex Police Federation has warned.<\/p>\n
Up to 25 police officers kill themselves in the UK every year and the Police Federation of England and Wales has recently introduced new training to help officers help themselves or struggling colleagues.<\/p>\n
Steve Taylor, Essex Police Federation Chairman, said: \u201cThis is a very sad statistic and we cannot bury our head in the sand and allow this issue that has been traditionally thought of as a secret to go unpublished and undiscussed. Even one officer making that decision and ending their life based on the job that they\u2019re doing and the demands and the pressure that they\u2019re under, is obviously one too many.\u201d<\/p>\n
Essex and Kent Police are running a joint health and wellbeing drive that is making inroads in mental health issues among officers, and has won awards for the good work it does, Steve said. Under the programme, supervisors are trained to recognise the signs of depression and suicidal feelings as well as self-awareness training for those who are struggling.<\/p>\n
Steve added: \u201cI would urge people not to suffer in silence. If you are struggling, the first step you need to take is to talk to someone. And we at Essex are trying to create an environment where you can share with your managers and colleagues, with a view to getting some help.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLikewise, I would urge leaders to be cognisant of placing too many demands on the few of us that are trying to do more with less. We have to respect that when people say they cannot do something, cannot take on any more work, that is accepted as a reasonable response. We have to respect that decision and take steps to do what we can to help them individually.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eddie Bannon, who recently delivered training at the Police Federation of England and Wales, said that in the majority of cases, suicide is not inevitable and can be averted with the \u201cright help and support\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cMen are three to four times more at risk of suicide because they find it more difficult to ask for help and tend to leave it until things spin out of control. What I want the delegates to take away from the training is how important it is to listen to people and don\u2019t jump in and try to fix things. You need to look for the signs, listen \u2013 let them talk about how they feel, and link them to the right support. Take the first step with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE police service cannot \u201cbury its head in the sand\u201d over the crucial issue of police officers taking their own lives, Essex Police Federation has warned. Up to 25 police\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3629,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3896"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3897,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3896\/revisions\/3897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}