Keeping you fit for work

I AM sure most of the Northumbria Police Federation readership are very familiar with the Police Treatment Centres (PTC), but if you have not been to us for treatment recently, you will be unaware of how much has changed over the past 12 months both in terms of the treatment and services we provide and indeed our facilities and infrastructure, writes PTC CEO Patrick Cairns.

For those of you who are unaware, the PTC is a two-centre Police charity based in Harrogate in the north of England and Auchterarder in Scotland. We have 22 forces within our constituency from the four countries of the UK, including Northumbria and other forces in the North of England, North Wales, Police Scotland and the Police Service of Northern Ireland. We also cater for three non-geographical forces: the British Transport Police, the MoD Police and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary.

Our vision is to establish the PTC as a Centre of Excellence in the care and treatment of police patients suffering from injury and illness, and through our work, support and encourage their return to better health as swiftly as possible. It is worthy of note to add that we provide care and treatment for both on and off duty injuries.

How You Can Sign Up

Officers can sign up to donate to the PTC through a very modest monthly payroll deduction. Once you arrive at the PTC for your two week residential stay, everything is absolutely free – including your accommodation, food, all treatment, attendance at all classes and talks and use of facilities.

This represents remarkable value by way of a return that directly benefits you, for what you actually donate.

The PTC is a fantastic place where we take huge pride in delivering the very best service and treatment to our police patients and in delivering proven results that help our patients get back to work and health and fitness much earlier than would otherwise be the case.

Our Facilities At Harrogate

There have been a number of significant improvements to our facilities and equipment at the PTC in the past 12 months. Evidence of this change is everywhere.

At Harrogate (pictured below) last year we updated our real estate with the creation of a new Sensory Garden, the building of a new outdoor gym, and the refurbishment of the Summer House and cottage (for use by those with carer/dependant responsibilities).

We also built a new indoor cycling studio on the side of the building where we now run instructor led and individual cycling classes and, as well as replacing all the gym cardio equipment with the most modern and up-to-date equipment on the market, we took the opportunity to buy two new state-of-the-art anti-gravity running machines, which are normally only used by professional athletes and Olympians.

Our Facilities At Auchterarder

This change is even more evident at Auchterarder in Scotland where many of our Northumbria patients go for treatment, and where we have recently opened a new £2.5 million Health and Fitness Complex which will include a new gym, a new swimming pool, and for the first time in Auchterarder, a brand new Hydrotherapy pool.

All of these new additions will enable us to improve our service and treatment to all our patients, and maintain our position as the treatment centre of first choice.

Looking After Your Mental Health

We also rolled out our new Psychological Wellbeing Programme at both Centres in the first half of 2016, which has dramatically improved and enhanced the level of treatment we are able to deliver to patients in the future.

We are seeing growing numbers of police officers presenting with these types of conditions and this was something we wanted to give our full attention and develop a more joined up approach to treatment.

We have traditionally focused our treatment for police patients (police officers) on a range of musculoskeletal and other physical injuries, and this obviously includes a significant number of police patients who suffer on duty injuries from assaults, road traffic collisions, stabbings, and public order incidents etc.

Although this remains the bulk of our work, it was clear that due to the number of police officers suffering from psychological injuries and illnesses, we needed to improve our treatment delivery in this critical area.

The result was the new Psychological Wellbeing Programme (PWP); which is a better structured and much improved programme that aims to treat our police patients suffering from mild to moderate stress, anxiety and mental health issues, and a range of other psychological conditions.

The PWP is made up of a number of treatment blocks including individual counselling sessions, group workshops, complementary therapies, exercise classes, and educational talks and advice forums.

One of the key elements of the programme is helping patients to develop coping strategies which will assist officers in dealing with their issues when they leave the PTC. Individual officers also benefit hugely from being able to share their experiences and stories with fellow officers whilst on the Programme, and form enduring support groups to help each other after they leave the PTC.

Feedback from the PWP has been incredibly positive so far, and the majority of patients in their feedback forms and discussions confirm that they leave the PTC in a better place emotionally, are more able to cope with the challenges of a demanding work environment than they were when they arrived at the PTC.

This has been reinforced by results from nationally accredited psychological tests and results on a sample of our PWP patients which have ratified the effectiveness of the Programme, and provide clear evidence of the difference we are making to our patients’ work and lives.

Growing Demand

We are not claiming that the PWP is for everyone, or that it is the only treatment programme available within the police community, but it is an important new approach to how we treat our police patients at the PTC.

Psychological and mental health challenges for police officers are very real issues that are going to be with us for many years.

Since April 2016 over 1,400 officers have attended the PWP at the PTC and demand continues to rise.

One in four of our patients at the PTC are now requesting admission to the PWP, and we anticipate this will increase to one in three in the next five years.

Every patient we treat on the PWP knows a colleague or colleagues who would benefit from attending the Programme and we continue to see a growth in the number of police officers and staff applying. The PTC is determined to respond to this growing demand and the needs of our patients and improve and expand the PWP in the future

The PTC is a fantastic place where we take enormous pride in delivering class leading treatment to all our police patients.

Helping Northumbria Officers

Northumbria has the lowest sign-up rate amongst our Home Office Forces as donors to the PTC at 43% of your Force total.

Notwithstanding that low sign-up rate, we still treated 123 Northumbria police officers at both our centres in 2016 and made a real difference to their health and wellbeing.

Independent evidence from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen published earlier on this year concluded that after a two week residential stay with us the majority of our police patients returned to work much earlier than would otherwise be the case without treatment at the PTC.

The research also found that they were less likely to go sick in the future with that same injury/illness, they were also less likely to go sick with other related injury/illness, and much more likely to return to unrestricted full time duties.

Those of us who are privileged to work at the PTC, see the very real difference that we make to our police patients for every intake through our treatment, and we know that we are helping to get our police patients back to better health, fitness and wellbeing.

I hosted both Northumbria Police Federation Chairman Jim Gray and David Orr, the Deputy Secretary and Treasurer for a visit to the PTC at Harrogate.

It was clear that they were really motivated to look after their federated members, and felt that the PTC have an important role to play in this respect, and are extremely keen to work with us to both improve the sign up rates, and of course increase the number of Northumbria Officers who present for treatment.

They are also in the process of developing the Health Care Scheme within Northumbria, which will include a number of benefits including access to the PTC for treatment.

I hope to welcome many of you for treatment with us in 2018 and beyond, but in the meantime do please take the opportunity to have a look at our updated website at www.thepolicetreatmentcentres.org and browse through our services.

If you do have any questions, do not hesitate to give us a call, or drop into the Federation offices to ensure you are signed up as a donor to the PTC, and able to benefit from treatment with us when you need it.