Due to crime, the police service can be a quite a negative place to work in. Officers encounter murderers, rapists, sudden deaths and other serious incidents, which combined with being overworked and overstretched in their roles can have a detrimental effect on their health and wellbeing, such as developing stress, anxiety, depression and other psychological illnesses.

A total of 9,267 police officers have taken time off with mental ill health, representing an increase of 635 officers from the figures provided the previous year, according to a Freedom of Information Act request of all forces.

The overriding theme seems to be that police officers are falling ill due to the stresses and strains of their jobs. And concerningly, when Police Oracle first ran their survey for the financial year 2012/13, 6,294 UK police officers were signed off work with psychological illnesses – with the number now at 9,267, that is an increase of 47 percent in past five years! 

Recently I asked a friend still serving as a police officer in the job, why does he believe more and more officers are developing mental health-related illnesses? He explained “The pressures on individual officers has increased over the last few years and this is largely down to austerity. The cuts in police numbers have meant that those left in the force will find themselves doing a lot more with the same amount of time. This constant pressure results in the stresses being too hard to manage. Once this is coupled with an incident where there is some personal connection, that person will not have the resilience to deal with the stresses and this is what causes mental health issues to develop. To put austerity into context, the UK police force has lost over 20,000 officers since 2010 and to think about that practically, this is more than the 16,000 officers who were called into London to deal with the autumn riots and disorder of 2011. This also doesn’t take into consideration the loss of civilian posts meaning those officers and staff left are now doing more than they can mentally cope with”.

Look life should not be this way, you should not have to sacrifice your health and wellbeing for a job and certainly not for a job you dislike. It is not worth it!

I had an unhealthy amount of stress when I was working in the job, dealing with the workload, injuries, long shifts, incompetent management and not to mention the horrible things I have seen, that I really wish I hadn’t. I felt fatigued and had anxiety knowing that I had to go back to work for another shift, dealing with the same old issues.

Building my business whilst I was working full time in the police service, gave me a new sense of direction and purpose. It excited me knowing that one day, I will get to leave the stressful working environment behind, to work on mine and my family’s future as a business owner. It gave me a light at the end of the tunnel and when I reached the end of that tunnel, it was everything I imagined.

I don’t get that anxious worrying feeling anymore and I don’t get saddened by waking up knowing that I have to clock on shift. This is because I now get to work on my own business and projects that I choose.  I don’t have to put up with a ridiculous workload, I don’t get injured, I don’t work long shifts, and I certainly do not see any horrible things anymore.

My mindset has really developed into a positive state since the day I began to build my business and at that point, I was still working on the job. It has now gone from strength to strength, I’m not surrounded by the negativity of the crime either or the negativity the of other ex-colleagues.

Your health should always be put first because, without good health, everything else gets affected from your finances to your family life, your relationships and your future. Is it really worth risking? For me, the answer to that question was a resounding no.

If you are suffering from mental health issues caused by working in the police service, then please contact, ‘Call4Backup’ you can contact them on: 08445 899957 or info@call4backup.org or check out their website at: www.call4backup.org