Restorative breaks available for Northumbria officers

NORTHUMBRIA Police Officers suffering from poor mental health can apply for restorative breaks at Northumbria Police Federation’s holiday lodge.

The lodge, at White Cross Bay in Windermere, can be provided free of charge to officers (who are subscribing members of the Police Federation and the Group Insurance Scheme) and their families who are genuinely in need of respite from either work-related issues or personal challenges.

It is also available for hire by all police officers and their families at a discounted rate.

The lodge is just one measure in a host available to police officers who are suffering from stress, anxiety, depression or PTSD.

Jim Gray, Federation Chairman, said: “There are a whole range of support packages from the Police Federation and from brother and sister support services, including the Northumbria Police Benevolent Fund, the Police Treatment Centres, the Police Dependants’ Trust, the MIND Blue Light programme, which has been adopted by our Force, and the Welfare Support Programme from the PFOA.

“There is a real desire from the Police Federation and other support associations to provide as much as we can. Locally, in Northumbria, we provide weeks, at no cost, at our holiday lodge for benevolent reasons for our officers, some of whom need respite regarding physical or mental challenges that they face.”

Jim was talking after it emerged that 80% of police officers have experienced stress, low mood, anxiety, or other mental health and wellbeing difficulties and that nine in 10 said psychological difficulties had been caused or made worse by work.

A 14% fall in officer numbers over a seven-year period from a high of 144,353 in September 2009, to 122,859 in September 2016, is having significant repercussions and directly affecting what police officers are able to deliver given the demands they face, the Police Federation of England and Wales warned last month.

Jim added: “What you also find with mental illness is that any related period of sick leave is generally much, much longer than those officers who have suffered a physical injury. So there is a real challenge there.

“There needs to be awareness shown from Government that there is a very real individual human cost to the continued lack of appropriate financial investment in policing and the directly linked significant reduction in police officer numbers.”