Leicestershire Police Federation remind officers to take time to look after their mental health

1 May 2020

Leicestershire Police Federation remind officers to take time to look after their mental health

Leicestershire Police Federation says officers are showing ‘huge resilience’ in the face of COVID-19.

But they must carry on thinking about theirs and their colleagues’ good mental health.

Federation Deputy Secretary and Wellbeing Lead Joe Lloyd said officers were doing well and were ‘bouncing back’ if they have had to take time off work.

“Officers and staff, everyone’s resilience, is huge during this time considering everything that’s going on,” he said.

“Some people are becoming ill, and then they are bouncing back reasonably quickly to get back to work, to carry on doing their best to support the public at this time.”

It’s vitally important that officers continue to think about their mental health wellbeing, Joe added, and take time out to look after it during this time.

“It’s quite a scary time for people, particularly for emergency workers and key workers. We are in contact with people when we are at work, and we are then taking that home – it’s scary.

“So just having a bit of time to work out or whatever it is you want to do, just takes those stresses and strains away a little bit.

“It’s paramount. To look after other people and to help other people, you need to ensure that you are looking after yourself.

“Positive change is my hashtag. I’m doing a 0 to 5k, and that has given me some of my time. It’s half an hour, and it just helps me get fitter, more focused, and it will then benefit my family because obviously I’m happier and in a less stressed situation.”

Unfortunately, a wellbeing event for officers which was scheduled to take place today (1 May) has had to be postponed.

However, the Federation has produced a one-pager offering links to helpful resources and websites just to bring all the information that’s out there in one place.

“We noticed other Federations and Oscar Kilo were putting out a lot of information around wellbeing, and we wanted to do keep all that information tighter, so we came up with the single page idea where people could access links just from a single page, rather than lots of information,” Joe said.

“We will continue to update that. Initially, we were thinking about families at home, but what about those people who are single? What are we doing for them? So, we’ve come up with different things for them. It’s easily accessible and quite handy.”

The Federation is always on hand to help too, either online or over the phone.

“Officers can look on our website or social media feeds, plus there is Police Mutual, Oscar Kilo, and if they need to, they can contact the office and speak to me,” Joe said.

“There’s a lot of support - If people are not sure, come to us, and we’ll guide you.”

You can see the Federation's wellbeing pack here https://online.pubhtml5.com/ncsw/uevc/