SLEEP deprivation and a need to work overtime are impacting on officers\u2019 health and wellbeing, says Essex Police Federation Chairman Steve Taylor.<\/p>\n
With mental health and wellbeing being more widely discussed at National Federation level, it\u2019s important that Essex members feel able to talk about the issue, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s frustrating in that like everything else mental health and wellbeing needs investment, but we\u2019ve acknowledged there is a problem force wide which is the first step,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about a cultural change, any police officer will fill in and do overtime if the job demands it, it will be \u2018there\u2019s overtime going who wants it\u2019 push, push, push.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut let\u2019s hang on a second because every bit of extra work we do is going to have an impact on work\/life balance, on rest periods and sleep patterns.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s already hard for officers to get enough sleep and to avoid the well-documented symptoms sleep deprivation can cause, due to the shift work most have to perform their duties under he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cCulturally we seem willing to allow colleagues to abuse their rest periods in the name of overtime,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd yet sleep deprivation can have serious consequences. We understand that for many officers overtime is the only way they can manage financially and that\u2019s another issue that needs looking at.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, sometimes our \u2018can-do\u2019 attitude can be our own worst enemy, but we are looking at the issue. It\u2019s a challenge of, course, to alter the culture but we need to stop pushing ourselves and our colleagues to the brink.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SLEEP deprivation and a need to work overtime are impacting on officers\u2019 health and wellbeing, says Essex Police Federation Chairman Steve Taylor. With mental health and wellbeing being more widely\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3052,"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\/4158"}],"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=4158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4159,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158\/revisions\/4159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}