The emergency services often see huge numbers of staff suffer from stress due to the high pressure work environment and the traumatic things they have to deal with. 2013-14 saw a huge amount of police officers take sick days.
Essex police officers alone lost more than 11,000 sick days to stress, anxiety or depression, during this time. These mental health issues are often referred to as an invisible illness because of the way we struggle to identify it and deal with it, both in others and within ourselves.
This force is seeing a sharp increase in this number, and is likely representative of the whole country.
In the 2013/14 financial year, a total of 11,238 days, or 3.38 days per officer, were lost. Since the start of this financial year, and up until 31 January, 10,007 days have been lost, equal to 3.1 days per officer.
This could well exceed last year’s statistics however, by the end of the last quarter.
In comparison, 2009/10 saw 1.43 days lost to stress per officer, a total of just 5,137 days.
There definitely seems to be a growing trend. Mark Smith, chairman of the Essex Police Federation, said: “I put it down to the cuts, which began in 2010, with the additional workload and stress officers are facing. We also have a number of officers dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.”
“It is a vicious circle. The more people go off sick the more work there is to be picked up by those who are there.”
Pressures from work are evident in all job roles and at all levels. It is important that people make the move to learn how to manage stress and look after their mental wellbeing.
