Officers are victims of their own dedication
To mark national Mental Health Awareness Week, Police Superintendents' Association President Paul Griffiths talks about the serious issues facing the police serviceDespite the regular attention given to mental health through national campaigns such as this week’s Mental Health Awareness Week, it seems this area of wellbeing continues to be something of a taboo, especially amongst the UK’s workforce.
Policing is a vocation that comes with a great deal of pressure, challenge and stress. This is something that everyone joining the service is aware of, but that no one can be fully prepared for.
I serve as a trustee for the charity Police Care UK and we supported the recent study into the mental health of police officers. It showed that as many as one in five police officers are suffering from a form of PTSD.
The effect of dealing with despair, distress, fear and grief witnessed by colleagues on the frontline, through to the extreme workloads and the pressure for our ranks, can all have a lasting psychological impact.
As an association, we have recognised the serious nature of the mental health issues facing our members and their colleagues for years, and back in 2016 we carried out a survey to try and understand the resilience of our members and the realities of day to day life as a superintendent.
The results were shocking, but sadly, not surprising. Our figures showed that:
- 50 per cent had signs of suffering with anxiety
- 27 per cent experienced symptoms of depression
- 75 per cent were working more than 50 hours per week
These statistics are extremely worrying and have been at the heart of work undertaken by the association to further understand the issues, and to work with the NPCC to bring better oversight to the working week undertaken by senior leaders.
Psychological illness, which half of our members surveyed were experiencing, is a disability. An invisible disability, but one with serious effects. A huge number of people live with the effects of mental ill health, but police officers are not openly talking about this or asking for help.
Of the 1285 members of the Police Superintendents’ Association, only 18 have described themselves as having a disability. This is a huge contrast to our survey results and raises broader issues on the work needed to support employees in declaring any disability, so that help can be provided.
Policing is not unique in this concerning trend. A survey of 2,000 UK workers carried out by the Mental Health Foundation in 2017 revealed that 38 per cent of British workers would not talk openly about a mental health problem for fear it would affect their job prospects or job security.
This aligns with our own survey which showed that 32 per cent would take rest days or leave to avoid calling in sick.
We have just completed a new survey of our members and are not confident that improvements will be found. We want our members, and the wider policing family, to be able to perform to the best of their abilities in the workplace, so we have undertaken a range of initiatives to achieve this. We are pushing to ensure that the hours worked by our members are regularly and accurately recorded, and we are providing training, support and opportunities such as regular health screenings.
However, this has to be a service-wide focus. We know that officer wellbeing is starting to get the attention it deserves and we were proud to be part of the development of the National Police Wellbeing Service which launched last month. We also welcomed the focus on this area in the most recent HMICFRS report.
People are policing’s most important asset and it is time for our people to receive the care they deliver to our communities every day.
In the past inspectors have reported on how policing picks up the pieces of a strained mental health system, but we must be mindful that our own officers do not become part of these ‘pieces’, ultimately becoming victims of their own dedication.
News Archive
- December 2023 (3)
- November 2023 (5)
- October 2023 (4)
- September 2023 (5)
- August 2023 (4)
- July 2023 (3)
- June 2023 (5)
- May 2023 (2)
- April 2023 (5)
- March 2023 (3)
- February 2023 (7)
- January 2023 (11)
- December 2022 (6)
- November 2022 (5)
- October 2022 (5)
- September 2022 (6)
- August 2022 (2)
- July 2022 (11)
- June 2022 (8)
- May 2022 (11)
- April 2022 (8)
- March 2022 (3)
- February 2022 (5)
- January 2022 (12)
- December 2021 (1)
- November 2021 (9)
- October 2021 (4)
- September 2021 (10)
- August 2021 (9)
- July 2021 (12)
- June 2021 (4)
- May 2021 (11)
- April 2021 (14)
- March 2021 (14)
- February 2021 (19)
- January 2021 (18)
- December 2020 (6)
- November 2020 (12)
- October 2020 (14)
- September 2020 (15)
- August 2020 (16)
- July 2020 (16)
- June 2020 (18)
- May 2020 (22)
- April 2020 (18)
- March 2020 (23)
- February 2020 (20)
- January 2020 (4)
- December 2019 (5)
- November 2019 (6)
- October 2019 (5)
- September 2019 (6)
- August 2019 (8)
- July 2019 (6)
- June 2019 (8)
- May 2019 (8)
- April 2019 (8)
- March 2019 (10)
- February 2019 (9)
- January 2019 (9)
- December 2018 (9)
- November 2018 (12)
- October 2018 (8)
- September 2018 (7)
- August 2018 (11)
- July 2018 (7)
- June 2018 (9)
- May 2018 (9)
- April 2018 (12)
- March 2018 (10)
- February 2018 (8)
- January 2018 (5)
- December 2017 (6)
- November 2017 (4)
- October 2017 (3)
- September 2017 (10)
- August 2017 (5)
- July 2017 (5)
- June 2017 (6)
- May 2017 (6)
- April 2017 (2)
- March 2017 (3)
- February 2017 (4)
- January 2017 (1)
- December 2016 (3)
- November 2016 (4)
- October 2016 (1)
- September 2016 (4)
- August 2016 (4)
- July 2016 (1)
- June 2016 (5)
- May 2016 (3)
- April 2016 (1)
- March 2016 (3)
- February 2016 (3)
- January 2016 (3)
- December 2015 (3)
- November 2015 (3)
- October 2015 (3)
- September 2015 (2)
- August 2015 (1)
- July 2015 (11)
- June 2015 (1)