999 services’ staff buckle under strain
Exclusive: Mental health toll on rise
THE TRAUMATIC jobs of Yorkshire’s emergency workers are taking an increasing toll on their mental health, The Yorkshire Post can reveal today.
Nearly 1,500 emergency service workers across Yorkshire had to take time off work for stress, anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 2017/18, a four-year high.
More than 58,000 working days were lost as a result at Yorkshire’s fire, police and ambulance services, an increase of 33 per cent since 2014/15.
MP Chris Bryant, who played a key role in the successful Protect the Protectors campaign earlier this year, called the findings “really disturbing”.
At North Yorkshire Police, more than one in 10 officers or staff are now having to take time off work because of stress, anxiety, depression, or PTSD, figures secured through Freedom of Information requests show.
Today’s special report comes after The Yorkshire Post exclusively revealed the rising mental health sickness rates at the Yorkshire Ambulance Service.
Mr Bryant said: “These are really disturbing findings, but I’m afraid I’m not surprised by them as the constant message I have had back from emergency workers is that they are overworked, under-resourced and under frequent threat of physical attack.”
He teamed up with Halifax MP and Labour colleague Holly Lynch to put forward new legislation dubbed the Protect the Protectors Bill, which will introduce harsher punishments for those who attack emergency workers.
The resulting Assaults on Emergency Workers private member’s bill received the backing of Parliament earlier this year and is likely to come into effect within months.
Mr Bryant said: “I hope it will help provide real protection to emergency workers, but the Government will need to make sure it is properly enforced and the emergency services have the resources they need to keep their staff safe and secure.”
Policing and Fire Minister Nick Hurd said: “Our police officers and firefighters do vital work to keep our communities safe, and we take their wellbeing and protection very seriously.”
He said the Government had announced a new police wellbeing goal in July to improve the welfare of officers and staff, and launched the Front Line Review to give officers the opportunity to make their views heard.
“We also worked with firefighters and staff to put in place a People Strategy, which includes information on health and safety, wellbeing and support services,” he said, before highlighting the Government’s support. “We are also supporting the Assaults on Emergency Workers Bill and the powers it will grant the courts.”
THE NHS is unable to provide traumatised police officers with therapy quickly enough, the Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police has warned.
The force has seen a near-doubling in staff taking time off sick with stress, anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in three years.
Chief Constable Lisa Winward said while the NHS would treat a broken leg immediately, those with serious mental health trauma often faced six-month waits.
“The National Health Service doesn’t have enough capacity to support those people quickly,” she said. “The best analogy I can use is if somebody’s got a broken leg the hospital won’t say to them, ‘We’ve got nobody that can help you for six months, you’ll be alright, just hobble round on it.’ But that’s what’s happening with mental health.”
Ms Winward said in the past, police forces dealt with mainly physical injuries but now it was “more mental health injury”.
However, she said officers off sick were being told by GPs that “you’ll have to wait six months for any sort of behavioural therapy”.
She said: “With mental health, people are going to their GPs saying, ‘I’m a police officer, and I am in need, I’m traumatised’, and the services just don’t have the capacity to say we’ll help you right now.
“So those people are not being helped as quickly as they could be. They come back to us and say, ‘I need my own agency’s occupational health support’.
“We try and provide that as quickly and effectively as possible, but then it takes a long time for somebody’s mental health to become better, or to be supported, rather than a broken leg healing. So I think we’re finding it’s very difficult.”
Ms Winward said its occupational health teams were supporting officers, but more of those services would be needed as greater numbers sought help.
Harrogate and Rural District Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) – the lead for commissioning mental health services for three of North Yorkshire’s four CCGs – said it was working closely with partners county-wide to ensure mental health and physical health were equal priorities.
A spokesman said: “We recognise the important contribution
of our emergency services and the challenges which come with these roles, as well as the need to ensure mental health services are available and accessible to our North Yorkshire population.”
He said services were available round-the-clock for anyone in crisis or experiencing a mental health emergency, while GPs may be able to provide appropriate care for those with less urgent needs or refer them on to community mental health teams for additional treatment.
The spokesman did not address the waiting times issue, but said anyone in Yorkshire could refer themselves for psychological ‘talking’ therapies that might be suitable for some patients with anxiety, depression, PTSD and other conditions.
The Yorkshire Post’s investigation found one in 10 police officers or staff at North Yorkshire were off work in 2017/18 due to stress, anxiety, depression or PTSD, the highest rate of any force in our region.
One in every 15 employees were affected at South Yorkshire Police and one in every 16 employees at Humberside Police. West Yorkshire Police did respond to the Freedom of Information request.
Ms Winward said people were more willing to admit to suffering from mental ill-health than they had been in the past.
North Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Julia Mulligan said there was a wide-ranging wellbeing programme and a team of excellent welfare advisers in place at the organisation.
“On top of that, the police recently implemented a new ‘TRiM’ initiative – Trauma Risk Management – and it is a way of assessing and helping people who have experienced a traumatic incident at work,” she said. “Notwithstanding this, I will continue to scrutinise these figures to assess whether our current support structures are sufficient.”
YORKSHIRE’S EMERGENCY services workers provide an extraordinary public duty in doing jobs that frequently involve putting themselves in harm’s way, dealing with traumatic situations and witnessing harrowing events. Figures revealed today by The Yorkshire Post highlight how this is taking its toll, with almost 1,500 police, fire and ambulance service workers taking time off for stress, anxiety, depression or posttraumatic stress disorder in 2017/18, a four-year high.
Labour MP Chris Bryant, who has campaigned for harsher punishments for those who attack emergency services workers, says the underlying reality is frontline staff are “overworked, underresourced and under frequent threat of physical attack”.
This has been echoed by the Chief Constable for North Yorkshire Police Lisa Winward, who has warned the NHS is unable to provide traumatised police officers with therapy quickly enough - with waits of up to six months for help with serious mental health trauma. As she notes, no one would be expected to make do with a broken leg for six months before receiving treatment, but that is what is happening when it comes to mental health because of capacity problems in the NHS. At her force, more than one in ten officers or staff are having to take time off work because of stress, depression, or anxiety. The Government is at least willing to admit there is an issue and has launched a policing review to allow officers to make their views heard, as well as introducing a ‘People Strategy’ with a focus on wellbeing for the fire service. But it is clear more work is needed.
In parallel to the way the public expect members of the emergency services to be provided with the right equipment and resourcing to be able to do their vital jobs effectively, the same standard must apply to ensuring those on the front line are given access to appropriate support when it comes to dealing with mental health issues.