Stress Awareness Month: Help is out there for officers who are struggling

9 April 2021

April is #StressAwarenessMonth and Kent Police Federation has outlined how help is out there for officers who are struggling.

During their careers, each police officer is likely to encounter between 400 to 600 traumatic events. Most citizens will experience between three or four in their lifetime.

Nationally, nearly 10,000 police officers took time off due to stress, depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder in the past year.

PFEW’s January 2021 Demand, Capacity and Welfare Survey revealed that almost 80% of officers said they have struggled with their mental health and wellbeing over the past 12 months.

Neil Mennie, Chairman of Kent Police Federation said: “Although we have made considerable improvements in the way that we talk about mental health and the way we deal with mental health, there’s still a disparity between an officer that perhaps has fallen over and broken their leg at work as opposed to an officer who is possibly suffering with the effects of stress and anxiety.

“We still need to continue to make sure that they’re in an environment where they can freely talk about it and get the help they need. We’re definitely going in the right direction but I think there’s still more to do in feeling comfortable talking about some of these issues and talking is the key thing here.”

Neil added: “Kent Police has its own internal support processes, including the Employee Assistance Programme which is a 24/7 phone line and email contact and it’s run by a company called Health Assured and members can find the links to that on the force’s internal system.

“They also run some courses that officers can attend around health and wellbeing and obviously the support of the occupational health department.”

He concluded: “I think I’d encourage officers just to speak to someone they trust, whether it’s a family member or colleagues, if they’re struggling to adjust as we transition from the Covid restrictions and the rules and regulations around that into what we would call more of a normality.

“There is a risk that that might actually not necessarily be a positive thing for everybody. There could be some people that find that difficult or that are suffering from sort of a psychological hangover from being in these restrictions for so long so it’s really important to seek out people and talk about these issues with someone they trust, with colleagues, with family, or contact Staff Associations including the Federation who can help or signpost officers to further support.”

Officers in need of support can also see more about the Mind Blue Light Programme here https://www.mind.org.uk/news-campaigns/campaigns/blue-light-programme/

The Stress Management Society have also created a free Individual Stress Test https://www.stress.org.uk/individual-stress-test/ where individuals can receive a stress score and some personalised recommendations for managing this.