THE police service needs to collectively work towards improving things for those suffering from mental health issues, says Essex Police Federation.<\/p>\n
Recent Police Care and Cambridge University-led research revealed that nearly all the 17,000 officers they surveyed had experienced a traumatic experience at work.<\/p>\n
Worryingly, 20% went on to suffer PTSD symptoms such as emotional \u2018numbness\u2019 or feelings of being disconnected from society.<\/p>\n
Essex Police Federation Chairman Steve Taylor says the issue can\u2019t be left to lurk in the shadows.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever we talk about mental health, we have to acknowledge that it\u2019s not a dirty word, that it\u2019s not something we expect or support officers to deal with on their own,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to bring it out into the light wherever possible, and collectively work towards improving things for those suffering from mental health issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur organisation has a \u2018Live Well, Feel Well\u2019 programme that\u2019s nationally recognised. We have relatively quick referral times compared to other forces and our organisation takes it seriously. At the same time, of course, we could always benefit from more investment in this area.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could always do it quicker than we are doing it, and we must take those opportunities when they present themselves, notwithstanding the added costs that that brings. But first and foremost, and I repeat this all the time, mental health is not a dirty word. We need to continue talking about it constructively, in the open, to everyone\u2019s benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a message which is now resonating with Essex Police officers and part of the solution, Steve says, is to make sure supervisors are aware and can spot the symptoms of mental health in others.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have training not only for those who feel they might be suffering the symptoms with the appropriate referrals, we also have training for supervisors to help identify the warning signs that accompany poor mental health,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, it is a multi-forked approach that the organisation is taking, and we support them wholeheartedly while they do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The nature of the job also means that trauma is never going to be too far away he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe encounter people at their most vulnerable, at their most traumatic, and we\u2019re only human and it\u2019s going to affect us. What we know about trauma is it affects every individual uniquely, and what could be debilitating to me, someone else could take in their stride.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, it\u2019s not one size fits all. It\u2019s really important that we continue to talk about it and we encourage those that might be suffering some of the symptoms, such as fatigue, not getting proper sleep, not getting proper exercise, not being able to concentrate, being quick to anger, having too much alcohol, to talk about them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve added: \u201cThese are signs that we can recognise in ourselves and in others, recognising them for what they are, namely symptoms of the trauma that you\u2019ve been exposed to, and signposting how we can help deal with that where appropriate.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery constable, Sergeant, Inspector, Chief Inspector in the organisation needs to be aware of those symptoms and know what to do should they see them in colleagues or themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE police service needs to collectively work towards improving things for those suffering from mental health issues, says Essex Police Federation. Recent Police Care and Cambridge University-led research revealed that\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52,"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\/49878"}],"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=49878"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50459,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49878\/revisions\/50459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}