A LARGE increase in police officers taking sick days reflects increasing workloads and stress, but there is help out there, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.<\/p>\n
New figures show that police officers in England took more than 730,000 sick days last year \u2013 up from 320,000 in 2012\/13.<\/p>\n
South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said: \u201cThere will be myriad reasons for this rise in sick days. Officers are facing increasing workloads and increasing stress, pressures and bureaucracy.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur officers are breaking, but we are getting better at trying to fix them. Our force has got a really good occupational health unit and we in the Federation have our own in-house counsellor, who is here two days a week. Anybody who comes to us or the force will get seen to pretty quickly. We\u2019ve had feedback from some people that counselling has been life-changing.\u201d<\/p>\n
South Yorkshire Police Federation is one of only a few Federations in the country to have its own counselling suite, Steve added.<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cWe\u2019re getting there, but we\u2019ve got to do more to stop officers breaking in the first place. That\u2019s going to mean more investment, more recruitment, better pay, people being able to take leave at the proper times. All that kind of thing, which is not going to change overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officers who were struggling should come and speak to the Federation, Steve said, adding: \u201cAfter that, if they\u2019re in the Group Insurance Scheme, they can get up to eight counselling sessions for free. And they\u2019ll probably be seen within a week or two. And please let us know if you\u2019re worried about a colleague\u2019s mental health \u2013 we can help them too.\u201d<\/p>\n