HEALTH & WELLBEING
considered are scheduling and quality of rest breaks during a shift, workload and responsibilities – both physical and mental – including repetitive, monotonous, demanding, or strenuous work, stress at work, and pressures from digital life. This includes the pressure to respond to emails when not at work, and external pressures such as changes to the household.” According to scientific evidence, fatigue not only affects officers’ emotional and mental health, but results in an increased risk of minor and chronic health conditions for shift workers. “I am sure some of our members will recognise it as when they are fatigued they experience increased incidences of cold and flu, nausea, and stomach complaints,” he says. “Worryingly though, some studies have also shown a correlation between shift work and more serious health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.” Mark concludes: “As the Health and
Safety Lead for the PFEW National Board, I want to increase awareness of fatigue as a significant risk. We will soon launch our Fatigue Initiative, which is broken down into three distinct areas. The first will hopefully raise awareness around fatigue, removing the stigma and increasing its profile. We will then look at how we can enhance partnerships between the organisation and individual officers to demonstrate how it can be tackled. Ultimately, we want to circulate enough information, so we can look after each other by recognising the signs of fatigue, and the dangers if it is left unchecked.” As part of the Fatigue Initiative, PFEW will work with forces to ensure they are doing all that they can to reduce the risk of fatigue. PFEW is asking them to be proscriptive in the hours’ officers are working, while recognising the importance of suitable and sufficient risk assessments to protect officers. The
• Adhere to working time and police regulations.
initiative’s wish list is not unreasonable, as many requests are enshrined by law, which says forces should:
• Ensure officers take quality rest breaks away from the workplace.
• Provide suitable rest rooms. • Provide suitable and considered shift patterns.
• Adopt a proper fatigue reporting process.
• Ensure the environment doesn’t cause drowsiness.
• Have effective measures to monitor and distribute workloads.
• Ensure incidents or accidents where fatigue may be responsible are
• Have an effective fatigue risk management system.
thoroughly investigated.
For more information on the Fatigue Initiative please visit
www.polfed.org
SLEEPINESS,
INCREASED SUSCEPTIBILITY TO ILLNESS
INCLUDING FALLING ASLEEP AGAINST YOUR WILL
REDUCED ALERTNESS,
CONCENTRATION, AND MEMORY
DIGESTIVE PROBLEMS
SIGNS OF FATIGUE
LOSS OF APPETITE
REDUCED ABILITY TO BE PRODUCTIVE
DEPRESSION
LACK OF MOTIVATION
HEADACHES
41 | POLICE | APRIL 2023
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