PTC offering virtual wellbeing and physiotherapy support
7 January 2021
West Midlands Police Federation members will still be able to access mental health and physiotherapy support despite the new lockdown restrictions.
This comes after the Police Treatment Centres (PTC) announced the temporary closure of both of its rehabilitation centres following the Government’s decision to put the country in a national lockdown.
Explaining the closure, Patrick Cairns, the chief executive officer at the PTC, said: “At the core of this decision is the need to keep our employees and patients safe. We need to respect the intent behind the legislation which is to reduce the transference of the virus from person to person.”
However, members of the PTC team have been working hard to ensure people will be given wellbeing and physiotherapy support, either virtually or remotely.
In a statement issued this week, Patrick reassured all current members accessing the centres’ wellbeing programme that they will be hearing from the nursing team with information on what support they will be given.
“They will also be offered access to the Thrive App, which is the only NHS approved mental health app available in the UK and can be used to manage stress and improve wellbeing,” he added.
“Likewise, all those booked onto the residential physiotherapy programme will be contacted by the team and if appropriate will be offered remote treatment.”
The remote physiotherapy service will continue, offering both current and new patients online treatment from clinicians while work on the new clinical services wing has been able to continue and is on track for completion in the spring.
Patrick added: “We would like to thank everyone for their understanding. We are very much aware that our police officers have worked tirelessly throughout the whole of the pandemic, often at great risk to their own physical and mental health.
“We would like to reassure everyone that we will re-open our doors at the very earliest moment and look forward to getting back to delivering our class-leading treatment plans to the best police service in the world.”
PTC is a charity which provides treatment and support for injured and ill police officers and retired officers, including a psychological wellbeing programme as well as police-specific physiotherapy and rehabilitation.
It has two treatment centres at St Andrews, in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, and Castlebrae in Auchterarder, Perthshire.
The Force has switched to the PTC as its rehabilitation services provider. As part of the new Force arrangements, all student officers will receive their first 12 months’ subscription to the PTC free of charge.
And, any officers signing up to the PTC before 30 April 2021 will not have to be a member for a minimum of 12 months before they can access treatment as is usually the case.
The treatment centres are available to all serving West Midlands Police officers, PCSOs, Special Constables and detention and custody officers. Retired officers can also sign up at a lower rate.
Any serving officer who had previously been donating to Flint House was automatically transferred to the PTC from 1 January 2021.
If you would like to find out more about subscribing to the PTC please visit thepolicetreatmentcentres.org where you can also find the sign-up forms.
The PTC is a registered charity supported by voluntary donations from the police family. Officers currently make a donation from their pay of £1.80 per week.
Almost 4,000 serving and retired officers usually attend the two centres each year with most receiving intensive physiotherapy. Others seek support with stress-related conditions or anxiety and depression as part of a psychological wellbeing programme.
