Ethics, Culture and Mental Health in Policing
There is a mental health crisis in policing, of that there can be no doubt. For the UK the numbers are stark, with up to 1 in 5 serving officers estimated to be working whilst suffering from the effects of PTSD or C-PTSD. These numbers are supported by the sheer volume of mental health sick days, with 730,000 mental health sick days being taken in 2022 an increase from 320,000 2012/13. Aside from the obvious human suffering this indicates, cultures where people are under this kind of stress, or trying to function with the negative effects of PTSD, such as flashbacks, aggression, hyper-vigilance, emotional numbness and dissociation can all too easily become toxic, as any sign of vulnerability or weakness has to be shut down for fear it will lead to the collapse of the protective wall and overwhelm of feelings.
When the police need to retain the confidence of the public and work with some of the most vulnerable people in society, we should do our best to make sure that they are in the right state of mind to do this vital job.
At OEV we believe that there are innovative treatments available to help address these mental health challenges but that it requires new thinking in the areas of training, culture, leadership and work design and to be able to make the most of them. And given the scale of the crisis, the existence of innovative new treatments, should be the catalyst to explore new ideas.
Our Director of Policy and Campaigns, Neil Woods has first hand experience from his time as a uniform officer and later as an undercover of the significant mental health impacts of police work and we found a willing partner and host in the University of Law and supporter in social justice charity Cranstoun to help bring together a seminar to discuss this new thinking.
It was inspiring to see that other organisations wanted to come and find out more and we were joined by a number of education institutions that offer police training and either in the room, or online by representatives from across all countries in the UK and around 18 constabularies.
The session started with Neil drawing on his own experiences of C-PTSD and talking openly about his struggles after a decade spent as an undercover drugs operative, which led him into some highly dangerous places and a number of experiences where death seemed likely. Neil now realises he was probably already suffering from PTSD after his earlier experiences as a uniform constable, before adding layers to this trauma whilst undercover. However, in his struggles since leaving the police, Neil admitted that that harm that he had caused to others, by manipulating vulnerable people who use drugs to gain access higher up the chain, was what brought him closest to suicide. This idea of moral injury is well known amongst war veterans, but perhaps less well understood or associated with police work. It’s the idea that you’ve done something to harm others and against your own sense of what’s right and wrong. It starkly demonstrates the importance of acting positively and having meaning in work.
The nature of the work that police officers are asked to do, takes on added importance in this context, and is thrown into a sharper focus with research indicating that doing meaningful or rewarding work, can be a protective factor against mental health injury. In our second session Innovative Approaches to Service Design and Impacts on Mental Health Darren Nicholas of Cranstoun, gave some important examples of areas where police work can be made more meaningful, particularly in the areas of drug policing. Instead of repeatedly sending people who use drugs through the full criminal justice process, only to see them return, vulnerable people can be diverted to a full needs assessment, so they can access support rather than face incarceration. In addition, Cranstoun are a strong advocate for the carrying of Naloxone nasal spray, which can turn the traumatic experience of attending an opioid overdose, into a potentially life saving one by officers being able to administer a rapid acting antidote. Jason Harwin KPM, retired assistant chief constable, added his support to these ideas, for his perspective as an experienced police leader and that programs like this can support positive work cultures.
If culture change is a key requirement to address the mental health crisis, it’s also important to think about how new officers are equipped, during training, to enter the police, with an understanding of their own mental health needs and how to manage and maintain them. But also the confidence to speak openly and show vulnerability.
For this to become a reality, police leaders need to model this behaviour, being honest about their own struggles and ways of coping. In this way weakness becomes a strength and vulnerability does not then become the target of vitriol both within and outside the organisation. Leading to toxic cultures, often dominated by misogyny as male ‘strength’, in carrying on and enduring as a way of coping is twisted and magnified to suppress, critique and sometimes ridicule other ways of thinking or acting.
Fortunately there is a growing awareness that change is required, and for the third session Is a Toxic Culture Inevitable Without Psychological Safety : Masculinity, Misogyny and Fear of Vulnerability forward thinking police education institutions such as the University of Law and the University of Salford showed they understand this.
Jennifer Schmidt-Petersen and Laura Dutton-Eves both have direct personal experience of the worst outcomes of poor mental health and toxic cultures and modelled the kind of openness that’s needed, sharing their own stories and stories of loved ones. They bring this passion into their jobs as police educators and made a convincing case for the need to include a focus on well being, resilience and self-advocacy into the policing curriculum, as a way to develop officers with the skills and knowledge to contribute to the development of supportive and inclusive police cultures.
Lieutenant Sarko Gergerian of Winthrop Police Department, Massachusetts, joined us remotely for the final talk ‘Trauma in the Mind AND the Body : Cumulative Impacts of Job Stresses on Police And Innovative Approaches to Policing and Police Wellbeing to show that policing in the US is facing similar issues and is also coming up with innovative solutions.
Sarko has the experience of introducing an innovative model of recovery oriented policing, similar in it’s aims, but more wide ranging to the programs operated by Cranstoun. Sarko explained how his model transformed the relationship with groups of vulnerable people from one of criminalisation, to one of offering and directing towards support.
One of the biggest challenges when addressing the mental health crisis in policing, is to widen the understanding about the cumulative physiological and psychological impact of repeated high stress incidents, when, each day, officers are seeing the worst parts of other peoples lives.
Science is increasingly showing that the mind and body carry the impact of this and the effort of suppressing naturally occurring feelings, in order to function effectively. Eventually, this ‘emotional labour’ takes it’s toll and officers can suffer the consequences and develop serious mental health issues.
Sarko has the added experience and unique perspective, in addition to his policing role, of being a trained psychotherapist and was able to explain, at a high level, how trauma and job stressors have cumulative physiological as well as psychological effects and how this can impact behaviour and performance on the job. Crucially, Sarko has participated in ground breaking clinical trials on treating trauma with MDMA assisted therapy, and was able to explain how this approach, as demonstrated by the trial results, offers hope and why he is advocating for officers worldwide to have access to this and other psychedelic therapies, in order to prevent their descent into serious mental health difficulties.
As Sarko so aptly put it, if your or your loved ones call the police, wouldn’t you want the officers to be well when they turned up?
