‘Timebomb’ Of Mental Ill-Health In Policing

“Mental health in policing is a timebomb”, the Chair of South Yorkshire Police Federation has said, as a new Police Traumatic Events Checklist is released.

Police Care UK has produced the checklist, which shows what experiences are most commonly considered traumatic by officers and staff of all ranks across policing.

The checklist, produced in collaboration with the Police Federation of England and Wales, can be used by individual officers, supervisors, the Federation, counsellors or other relevant parties.

A 2018 survey by Police Care UK found that more than 90% of UK police officers have had traumatic experiences on the job, with over 20% still being affected by those incidents to clinical levels of disorder (such as PTSD).

South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said: “I can’t believe that figure is as low as 90%. I think any officer who’s had any frontline experience – which is every officer – will have faced trauma.

“I’ve seen statistics in the past that say you experience more trauma as a frontline officer than you do as a battle soldier in war zones. I didn’t understand that at first, until someone explained to me the drip-drip effect of going to incidents like that.

“I was a response car driver for over a decade. You’re going to four or five incidents every day that involve some level of trauma. Even though individually they might not be that horrific, the drip-drip effect of that is massively negative.”

There needs to be a review into mental health in policing and more Government-funded counselling for officers, Steve said.

He said: “There needs to be a fundamental review of policing, because I think mental health in policing is an absolute timebomb. We’re seeing now that mental health is becoming more of an issue when it comes to ill-health retirement, and we need to start dealing with it earlier otherwise policing is going to face an explosion of people needing to take time out from the job or leave the job.

“There’s even a potential risk of litigation in terms of health and safety and not protecting our officers.

“Every frontline officer should have a consultation and a discussion with an appropriate medical professional every year. I know our force can’t afford that, it hasn’t got the money, so this has to be centrally funded.

“In our force we have got excellent mental-health provision through the force’s counselling services as well as the Federation’s Group Insurance Scheme with our own dedicated counsellor.

“Not all forces are fortunate to have that, but we shouldn’t be having to do that. It’s nice that we can and we’re proud that we do, but this should be done as a matter of course.

“If train drivers have an accident at work, they get professional counselling automatically. We get absolutely nothing and it’s absolutely ridiculous.

“I’m not saying it’s a pleasant thing for train drivers, but the train driver who unfortunately might be involved in a suicide is quite rightly looked after and protected. But the police officer who is picking up body parts from the railway lines, they get nothing.

“Police officers are not robots. Police officers are human, and I have a steady stream of experienced, apparently rock-solid frontline officers who are starting to break towards the end of their service. We’ve got to be very, very careful”.