COPS SICK WITH STRESS
REVEALED: Mental health and illness costing Geelong police 12 days a year
MENTAL stress and illness is forcing local police off the street for an average 12 days every year.
Freedom of Information data has revealed Geelong’s 194.93 full-time police officers each took an average of 12.79 days of unplanned leave last year. Geelong and Surf Coast officers took more than 14,000 days of sick and stress leave over the past five years, with Victoria Police, its union and former officers saying the job is leaving some officers at breaking point.
“In part the increase in unplanned leave is due to the higher number of mental health claims received,” Geelong region Superintendent Craig Gillard said.
He said one veteran member was being moved to a temporary role to help him recover from the “cumulative effects of trauma he has witnessed over his career.”
MENTAL stress and illness is forcing local police off the street for an average 12 days every year.
Freedom of Information data has revealed Geelong’s 194.93 full-time police officers each took an average of 12.79 days of unplanned leave last year. Geelong and Surf Coast officers took more than 14,000 days of sick and stress leave over the past five years, with Victoria Police, its union and the former officers saying the job is leaving some officers at breaking point.
“In part the increase in unplanned leave is due to the higher number of mental health claims received,” Geelong region Superintendent Craig Gillard said.
Supt Gillard said one veteran member was being moved to a temporary role to help him recover from the “cumulative effects of trauma he has witnessed over his career” and that “a number” of police were on back to work plans to ensure their reintegration into the force after leave.
Union boss Wayne Gatt said daily stress coupled with inadequate policing numbers was crippling the force, leading officers to take stress and sick leave at a higher rate.
“It’s a flow-on effect of the rigours of the job and the pressure our members face every day in an underresourced environment, particularly on the frontline,” Mr Gatt said.
“We would see this (mental health) as one of the biggest challenges concerning our members in modern policing.
“We need to get better and move quickly to address the faults in our system that continue to deny help and support to our injured police.”
Last year, Geelong officers took 2016.59 days of personal leave — which includes sick and stress leave — plus an additional 476.34 days of carers leave. In 2015, Surf Coast officers took an average of 18.21 days of unplanned leave each and called in sick a combined 1137.39 days. This number dropped to 737.88 personal leave days in 2017.
“With a greater focus and awareness on the mental awareness of staff we are now seeing police selfnominating when they recognise they are impacted by issues they have experienced in the workplace and seeking specialist support,” Supt Gillard said.
Former police officer Mick Cummins, who retired with posttraumatic stress disorder and now runs a Geelong-based support group for retired and current police members, said staff often took sick leave — or carers leave — because the mental stress left them unable to go to work that day.
Mr Cummins praised a renewed focus on mental health among police command but said legislative changes in which PTSD among emergency workers was assumed to be caused by the job must be introduced to ensure police were fully supported.
The union also said members with PTSD or other psychological injuries were being forced to wait excessive time before workers’ compensation claims were accepted, and was advocating for a provisional acceptance model for mental health claims to ensure members received assessment and treatment.
While the Government has not committed to legislative change, Police Minister Lisa Neville said an established working group was reviewing mental health support and care for all emergency workers.
Supt Gillard said the mental health and wellbeing was “absolutely paramount” and a key priority and focus for the Geelong region.
LIFELINE: 131 114