Pandemic Has Detrimental Effect On Officers’ Mental Health

OFFICERS’ mental health has been like a ‘pressure cooker’ due to the stresses of policing the pandemic and fears that they would pass on COVID-19 to their families.

South Yorkshire Police Federation said officers in the region have been under immense stress dealing with COVID rule-breakers, protecting their communities and trying to impose and explain ever-changing rules and regulations, all while striving to keep themselves and their families safe from the virus.

It is the likely reason behind a new report revealing two-thirds of officers across the country had reported worsening mental health symptoms, the Federation said.

The dossier from mental health charity Mind also showed that most officers were terrified of passing the deadly virus onto family and loved ones.

A lack of quality time at home and proper rest has added to the potentially damaging mix.

South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said the report shows how vital it is for officers to talk to each other and share their worries with their Federation.

He explained: “It has been a challenging year, and we’ve seen and heard from a lot more of our colleagues who are struggling, and we’ve referred probably more people than usual to our in-house counselling team and services.

“It’s something that’s just crept up. Initially, with the lockdown, many people thought that COVID was potentially going to kill many more officers than thankfully it has, so it’s not had that kind of impact.

“Even so, people were genuinely scared, now that’s been replaced by officers feeling they’ve worked through all of this but without the downtime, without quality leave, without the chance to unwind on rest days.

“It’s been like a pressure cooker, and our concern is with everything that’s going to happen in the next six months, leave will be at a premium.”

However, Steve hopes that officers will be able to take some leave before the ‘perfect storm’ of the summer kicks in once the country begins to ‘unlock’. He also wants officers to keep talking about their mental health.

He said: “I’m worried about the next six months, and I’ve discussed this with the force and made my thoughts known. We’ve got a bit of a perfect storm looming here, so we need to start trying to get our officers as much leave as much as possible, which is going to be very difficult.

“If officers are worried about themselves or a mate is, speak to supervisors, talk to each other, get in touch with a local Rep.

“We have things we can use like the welfare support programme from the Defence Medical Welfare Service which may be suited to those suffering from mental health traumas or officers can go through a local Fed Rep.

“Or they can come to us in the office; there are things we can do, services we can potentially offer and programmes through the group insurance scheme and the services through the force.

“The main hurdle for officers is for them to pluck up the courage to say, ‘hang on a minute, I’m not okay’.

“Once you get through that barrier, there are plenty of things in place to try and give you that support. It might just be letting off steam or recharging the batteries.

“Even people who historically might have been reluctant to talk about things they’re actually coming to us or speaking to each other now telling us that they’re not well.

“So while it’s not good that they’re not well, it’s good that they are starting to find the courage to come out and say it.”