MEN’S HEALTH


MEN UNDER PRESSURE


Chief Inspector Stewart Codling of Thames Valley Police discusses TVP Men’s Forum and the great work done to support any man facing any challenge. By Anthony Grech-Cumbo


As part of this issue’s focus on mental health, we spoke to Chief Inspector Stewart ‘Codders’ Codling, Thames Valley Police (TVP).


Codders is the instrumental, inspirational driving figurehead for TVP Men’s Forum. The ethos behind the forum is summed up in their tagline: ‘TVP Men’s Forum – supporting any man facing any challenge’. There has been much debate about support networks within the workplace and, for some years, the conversation at TVP had rumbled on between men in


30 | POLICE | APRIL 2023


locker rooms and corridors about the lack of focus and the lack of safe spaces for male officers. Codders was part of some of those conversations. “To be honest, for me, I think it was just


about the sense of not having something when others did, although I did not really know what it was we needed,” he recalls. “Then between 2016 and 2020, we lost seven male officers – sudden illness, killed on duty, suicide – a devastating time for all involved, but we then knew what it was we needed.” After these tragic events, a conversation


with Chief Constable John Campbell opened up the space in which a men’s forum could be considered and realised. Once granted the opportunity to create the forum, a small number of colleagues started to set it up in a self-confessed chaotic and unstructured way. Temporary Police Inspector Kelly Reed stepped in to chair the meetings, take the minutes, and take responsibility for all actions. It was evident to Codders that men wanted the forum, but nobody was prepared to get stuck in or constructively acknowledge that the men needed serious help.


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