Wellbeing and mental health support officer wins Surrey Police Federation's Northern Division Award

26 November 2025

An officer who is passionate about his colleagues’ mental health and has set up a support group for those affected by trauma has won the Northern Division Officer Award at the Surrey Police Federation Recognition Awards 2025.

Acting Det Sgt Daniel Bell is a wellbeing and mental health support officer for the Northern region of Surrey Police  

His colleagues call him a “driving force” in making positive changes to mental health support for the force’s officers and staff.

Dan said: “We tragically had a number of suicides last year in this area of Surrey Police. I thought, I've got two options, I can either say, ‘This is really bad’, and not really do anything about it, or I can try to make a positive impact and change the culture.

“I've been passionate about mental health for a long time. Since 2021, I’ve been a ‘defuser’ at incidents. If an officer goes to something like a suicide, a murder or a horrible car crash, they can sit down afterwards with someone like me and explore how the incident affected them, how it felt, any ongoing issues, and then we follow up in 28 days to see if it's having any kind of longer effect.”

Dan said this experience helped him understand more about mental health, so he volunteered for the role of co-lead for the Wellbeing Inclusion Forum.

He said: “From there I started engaging with people such as our chaplains, our mental health first aiders and our central wellbeing team. We took a view on what we were already doing and what we could do better.”

One of Dan’s first initiatives was a poster campaign, which has now spread force-wide. The posters list in-house support, including apps, helplines and chaplains, and are stuck on the back of toilet doors and in communal areas – what Acting Det Sgt Bell referred to as “anywhere someone might go to have a cry, or break down and take themselves off for five minutes”.

Following this, in May 2025, Dan set up North Surrey’s Mind Health Support Group, a weekly talking therapy group.

He explained: “Police officers see some of the most horrendous things you can imagine – murders of children, suicides, rapes – and it affects them. So we set up a support group where we talk about things. It doesn't take much to get the ball rolling – people open up pretty quickly, and attendance has skyrocketed. We’ve had over 60 officers and staff members reach out for support, which equates to just over 10% of our entire workforce for the North, so people are using it.

“And it's having an effect. Officers have broken down in tears and told us things they've never told anybody before. We've had people talk about their mental health struggles and suicide attempts. We're now in the position where we're proactively dealing with mental health rather than reactively dealing with it after the fact.”

Dan said there were even more initiatives he wants to set up to help Surrey Police officers and staff. He’s also training to be a OK9 dog handler for Oscar Kilo, where he hopes to take a trauma support dog around police stations. 

Surrey Police Federation Chair Darren Pemble said: “Sadly mental ill health is a huge issue in policing and we always must remember the recurring trauma our colleagues have to face in their roles.

“Dan has achieved a huge amount in a short space of time in getting people to open up about their mental health struggles and seek help. He is always willing to give up his time to help others, and is the kind of person people open up to. He is an amazing role model and positive influence for inspiring change.

“He is a deserving winner of this Award.”

As the winner of a Surrey Police Federation Recognition Award, Acting Det Sgt Bell will attend a prestigious Awards Ceremony on 4 December.

The lead sponsor for the Awards is Axon.

Also sponsoring are JMW Solicitors, Uniform Mortgages, Serve & Protect Credit Union, Police Mortgages, No1 Copperpot Credit Union, No5 Chambers, Accord, National Police Healthcare Scheme, The Surrey PCC, Police Friendly, Denis Mulholland Financial Solutions, Phillip Williams, Temple Legal, Slater & Gordon and Irwin Mitchell.