Police take more days off because of poor mental health

POLICE officers took a record 500,000 days off because of mental ill health last year, data show, as a former watchdog blamed the trauma of dealing with ill and dying people during pandemic.

Figures obtained through Freedom of Information laws from police forces show that the number of days taken off owing to mental ill health rose by 9 per cent in a year, from 457,154 in 2020 to 497,154 last year.

Twenty four of the 37 police forces that responded to the request for data reported an increase in mental ill health among their officers.

Warwickshire Police saw the steepest rise with 4,781 sick days taken off for mental ill health in 2021, up 68 per cent from the previous year.

Zoë Billingham, former HM inspector of police, said it suggested there was greater prevalence of mental ill health among emergency services because of what they faced during the pandemic.

“Police and other front-line services kept us safe through the pandemic. The pandemic was a great unknown. People were really fearful of dying and coming into contact with the virus, and many people did,” she said.

“Mental health and other professions were there from the get-go on the front line and, with enforced lockdown, there is an awful lot of trauma that the country is dealing with. There has been a doubling in mental health referrals for children as a result of the lockdowns.”

Ms Billingham said greater support for police and a recognition by forces of the risks meant officers were more likely to acknowledge and report mental ill health. Overall, the figures show almost 2.4million police working days have been lost to mental ill health over the past five years.

The Liberal Democrats, who obtained the figures, said that there was a “mental health epidemic” among police officers, and called on the Government to improve mental health support, including funding proactive mental health and wellbeing check-ups for officers every six months.

Alistair Carmichael, the Lib Dems’ home affairs spokesman, said: “It is deeply worrying to see more and more police days being lost to mental health issues. Police officers on the front line do an incredible job serving their communities. But we know the stresses of policing can take a heavy toll on the mental health of officers, leading in some cases to exhaustion and burnout.

“Years of under resourcing by the Conservatives means the thin blue line is being stretched to breaking point.

“The Government needs to get to grips with the growing mental health epidemic affecting our police and other front-line workers, and ensure that support is available quickly to those who need it.”