MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS UNDER PRESSURE
Media scrutiny, trauma, low pay and morale make today’s officers the most stressed in a generation. Urgent help is needed to prevent mass burnout, says PFEW Wellbeing Lead Belinda Goodwin. By Anthony Grech-Cumbo
Job pressures, poor pay, low morale, negative media reports, and staffing issues combine to make this climate the most challenging our members have faced in a generation. PFEW Wellbeing Lead, Belinda Goodwin, wants to focus on actions and programmes that prevent mental health issues, rather than an approach that seemingly provides assistance only after an event.
One initiative Belinda is keen to
establish across forces is real-time tracking of individual officers’ exposure to trauma. The build-up of repeated exposure to trauma and stressful events leads to anxiety, poor sleep, and depression, and may culminate in PTSD. We have seen a rise in officers experiencing PTSD after poor risk assessment and support procedures. Belinda is dismayed that no force collates officer exposure to trauma on a daily basis. The desired outcome is a moving scale that records the severity of an incident against attending officers. After a pre- defined parameter is met, officers would automatically be offered support, and perhaps prevented from attending certain incidents for a time. Belinda insists that responsibility needs to be shifted from the individual to the organisation. The wider
wellbeing picture is affected by a negative perception of police. This grew during the pandemic when officers had to enforce public safety laws that many didn’t understand. There is a lack of respect from a government that is seemingly capable of only paying lip- service rather than taking positive action. These factors threaten the four pillars of wellbeing: mental, physical, and financial health, and general wellbeing. Help is available but the inconsistency of availability means that officers face a postcode lottery. Some Federation branches pay for extra support, but this
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is a drop in the ocean. This is on top of the funding that the Federation provides with the welfare support programme. Responsibility should be with individual
“In addition to media scrutiny, the stresses of the job, poor pay, low morale and staff levels all combine to make the current climate the most challenging our members have faced in a generation”
forces, not the Federation, just as police treatment centres should be funded from police budgets or government. Belinda notes there has been a dramatic rise in officers reporting burnout and other stress symptoms.
This is why prevention provision must be accessible at different stages during careers, as officers experience trauma on a larger, more frequent scale than the public. Having as standard a best practice that provides appropriate support and mitigation before things escalate is vital. PFEW, under Belinda’s lead, has
successfully advocated for a Policing Covenant that is similar to the armed forces’ provision. Covenant content is still being determined, but the idea is in law. It will be a binding document to hold the Home Secretary to account. We want the document to standardise best practice and prioritise
health service access for members injured on duty or as a result of work events. Those who assault police officers must be sentenced with consistency and vigour; and the document must acknowledge the impact that policing has on officers’ families and loved ones, so those who support our officers every day have somewhere to turn. Ultimately, the Covenant should bring real meaning and benefit to members, exceeding business as usual, but Belinda notes that there is some way to go to iron out the finer details.
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