Police officers are being urged to look out for their colleagues\u2019 mental health, in the national Federation\u2019s #AskTwice campaign.<\/p>\n
The PFEW initiative aims to foster a supportive and inclusive work environment, where people feel valued, heard, and empowered to seek help when needed.<\/p>\n
It also consists of a library of assets at polfed.org\/campaigns\/asktwice\/. These offer guidance for those in moments of crisis, or people looking to support colleagues through challenging times.<\/p>\n
Steve Kent, Chair of South Yorkshire Police Federation, said it was a \u201cmassively important campaign\u201d. He continued: \u201cWe all talk about wellbeing and, to be fair to our force, in some respects we\u2019re good at dealing with it. And we as a Federation provide a lot of support with counselling and other help.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the issue is that we tend to be dealing with the back end of it. We need to start proactively preventing poor wellbeing within the force.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve added that officers\u2019 mental health was also affected by a lack of resources, a poor work-life balance and often not being able to take leave.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWe need to prevent officers getting broken, because we\u2019re good at dealing with things when they\u2019re broken, but we\u2019re not so good at preventing them from being broken in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n