Co-Welsh lead hosts first men's health webinar

20 November 2023

The impact of addiction, retirement and the misconduct process on officers were some of the issues discussed in the Police Federation of England and Wales’s (PFEW) first men’s health webinar.

The online session aimed to help change men’s attitudes towards health and to encourage them to talk about their mental and physical wellbeing.

Hosted by Zac Mader, PFEW’s co-Welsh lead, it heard from a range of speakers, including Nick Conn, chief executive and founder of Help4Addiction, which is working with the Federation to provide confidential support for officers with addiction issues, and their partners and families.

“Addiction doesn’t just bring you down,” he said. “It brings everyone down with you.

“If you’ve got an addict in your family it’s definitely going to be affecting you.”

Nick talked about his lived experience of being a serving police officer with an addiction and how he established Help4Addiction.

Nick said: “Addiction is not somebody’s problem, it’s their solution.

“It stems back to what else is going on. Is it trauma, mental health issues, depression, anxiety? What’s going on?

“Ultimately we look to change the way that we feel, which is why we veer to a substance or a specific behaviour.”

He said it was “emotional” for him to see how the culture in policing was changing and to be able to offer support.

“I couldn’t open up about my problem,” he said. “It wasn’t like that. You don’t talk about your emotions. You man up, you deal with it and get on.”

Chief inspector Stewart Codling, chair of Thames Valley Police’s Men’s Forum, talked about the work of the network in his Force.

And he described how recently supporting a colleague, who had been through a gross misconduct process that had lasted 18 months, had been “one of the most emotional weeks” he’d experienced.

“I look back to my detective years and know how quickly I can get someone through a criminal process, and here’s my colleague 18 months down the line, broken. His wife, broken,” he said.

“That might be hard for some to understand, and I know there were other people on the end of that gross misconduct case who some would say they’re the victims, but I know they got support.

“I put a message out on our Teams channel after this because I found it so emotional, and it’s got more responses than anything else I’ve ever written about.

“That was a real eye-opener.”

One of the attendees discussed his experience of retirement, describing it as “a massive cultural change”.

Now a member of police staff after a post-retirement period outside the service, he said: “Some of the issues I found have been mental health, and it’s the panic of not knowing where to go or what to do.

Belinda Goodwin, PFEW’s wellbeing lead, responded that the Federation was working on a three-year retirement plan as part of the Police Covenant.

She also spoke about changing attitudes and the role female colleagues can have in helping men feel empowered to open up. 

“The main crux for me is about language, attitudes and getting men to talk,” she said.

“If you’re concerned or worried about anything, go and speak to somebody.

“Suicide in men is way above women, and there’s a reason for that.

“It’s about talking and sharing and having that confidence to say to someone, actually I’m struggling.

“Know that we’re all in it together.”

The webinar, which was sponsored by Health Cash Plans - HSF UK, also heard from John Harrison, the police service’s chief medical officer.

He spoke about what was needed to support men’s health in policing.

“There is a central leadership role, and hopefully the National Police Wellbeing Service is playing its part in raising awareness, putting resources out there that people can use, training people so they have better skills,” he said.

“But a lot of this has to be organic. It’s about growing it from the bottom up.

“There are a lot of people out there who are really enthusiastic about this and get it, but they were all isolated so it’s allowing them to come together.

“Initially that’s going to be people who are like-minded and are bought into it. The more you take that forward and show that what you’re doing is beneficial, you’ll get recruits to that.”

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