Wellbeing

FEATURE: A new study highlights the range of both organisational and operational stressors that are having a damaging psychological impact on UK senior investigating officers, with researchers warning that unless forces embark on a process of significant reform of structures, some of these challenges will become “terminal”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: New South Wales (NSW) Police is facing a $1.75 billion psychological injury bill and a co-responder mental health programme known as PACER that operates in only 12 of 57 area commands almost a decade after its first pilot within the force; strategy and reform consultant Kavitha Vipulananda compares the police approach in NSW with co-responder models in other Australian states and asks what it would take to scale a programme that works.

OPINION: With this week marking Men’s Health Week in the UK, and June dedicated as PTSD Awareness Month, Chartered Psychologist Dr Rachel Rogers explores some of the challenges and ongoing efforts to improve male police officers’ ability and willingness to access mental health support, and shares the personal experiences of three officers who were able to reach out to when their own mental health was suffering.

FEATURE: The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has been given six months to work with the Home Office to produce a long-term, costed IT strategy after the first agency-wide HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services inspection found that existing systems were “not fit for purpose”; the NCA has also been urged to address staff shortages that impact on analysis capabilities and act on workforce concerns over bullying, harassment and discrimination, reports Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

INNOVATION: The fully automated Trauma Tracker system launched by Avon and Somerset Police will enable line managers and wellbeing professionals to proactively manage workforce exposure to trauma, as well as giving officers and staff regular updates on the possible impact that traumatic incidents may have on their wellbeing, as Inspector Stuart King explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

INTERVIEW: With concerns over the rise in poor mental health in policing, new research by criminologist and former police officer Dr Mark Brain, now an Associate Lecturer at the University of the West of England, suggests that far from being a product of exposure to traumatic incidents, mental ill-health in policing is largely driven by organisational issues such as poor management of professional standards investigations and an ongoing organisational “machismo” culture, reports Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

FEATURE: A new study into the wellbeing of disaster victim identification (DVI) officers has highlighted the “moral dissonance” experienced by staff that can contribute to stress and psychological strain, the continuing stigma of seeking help and support for their mental wellbeing, and the damaging impact that the media’s glamourisation of crime scene investigation can have on new DVI recruits whose expectations are far removed from the reality of deployment, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INTERVIEW: Ahead of this month’s American Society of Evidence-Based Policing Conference, American University Associate Professor Dr Janice Iwama spoke to Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend about her research into how peer support programmes are designed and delivered in practice, the need to view them as part of wider organisational culture, and why such initiatives require ongoing attention to training and support.

OPINION: Victoria Police is making more arrests than at any point in its recorded history; but strategy and reform consultant Kavitha Vipulananda argues that, as the force is also experiencing record rates of officer burnout, a documented accountability deficit at command level, and a systematic misidentification problem in family violence proceedings, all the evidence points toward the need for a comprehensive reform agenda spanning all three of these interconnected issues.

OPINION: Within the continuing debates around policing ‘culture’, much of the focus has been on ensuring officers and staff feel able to speak out about poor behaviour and report misconduct when necessary; but for Graham Goulden, a former long-serving officer and now a strong advocate for safe and supportive workplaces, the key to a caring culture means a shift from reporting harm to preventing it, and a workforce aware of the human signals that someone is struggling, before they become disciplinary issues.

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OPINION: Until UK policing learns to look after its workforce better, the communities it serves will never really be safe, warns Graham Goulden, a former officer with a 30-year career and now a strong advocate for safe and supportive workplaces, who argues that the active bystander approach could help to change policing culture to provide the support that officers and staff need, and the service communities deserve.

FEATURE: The latest report on the Police Covenant – the commitment introduced by the Government to ensure that current and former police officers, staff, and their families in England and Wales are supported and treated with fairness and respect – has highlighted significant developments including around health and wellbeing and suicide prevention, but has called for more to be done to ensure the police workforce is aware of the support available, reports Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

ANALYSIS: In the third in a trilogy of articles focusing on male officer mental health in policing, accredited psychological therapist Dr Rachel Rogers explores the aftermath of the challenges and barriers to help-seeking for male officers – workplace processes, changes, worsening of symptoms, and risk of Complex PTSD and/or Post-Traumatic Embitterment Disorder – and includes the comments and experiences of officers themselves.

INTERVIEW: Dorset Police’s Survivors’ Network was launched after several officers who came forward to complain of harassment, inappropriate behaviour and abuse found they lacked support; Chief Superintendent Julie Howe, who launched the award-winning initiative, explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons that the network is now helping to drive cultural change around misogyny and violence against women and girls, including those experiencing abuse in their private lives.

INTERVIEW: A series of ‘Gold Standards’ published by the UK’s National Police Chaplaincy service designed to inspire forces “in their care for colleagues and positively impact communities” will mirror many of the aims of the recent police reform proposals in England and Wales, while also helping officers to cope with an emotional weight in modern policing “that is too heavy for many to bear”, as National Police Chaplain Reverend Matthew Hopley explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

INTERVIEW: Hertfordshire Constabulary Sergeant James Stopford, a full-time Police Federation of England and Wales representative, hopes a personal “passion project” to highlight the risks associated with gambling – which can have a devastating impact on those already affected by trauma – can help to raise awareness of the dangers among colleagues in his own force and others across the country, as he explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

OPINION: With the hugely concerning levels of suicide among police officers and staff, highlighted most recently by the Police Federation of England and Wales, the service’s response to those struggling with poor mental health is increasingly under the spotlight; former senior Police Scotland officer Ryan MacDonald, now a writer and speaker on trauma and resilience, shares his own experiences of the deafening silence some officers encounter when disclosing their personal mental health challenges.

OPINION: From complex crimes and tight finances to emerging technology and the public expectations, policing in the UK is facing a wide range of often complex challenges; in an article drawing on her recent Atkins Lecture, Professor Kate Bowers, Director of UCL’s Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science, sets out some of those key challenges and, in the wake of the recently published white paper on police reform, suggests some potential ideas to address them.

INNOVATION: A new Wellbeing and Trauma Resilience Programme launched by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) – with funding secured from external sources – is focusing on stepping into the “proactive space” around wellbeing support, with group EMDR therapy, peer support groups, a new app, and psychoeducation for new recruits at the PSNI Police College among the range of measures that are already proving successful, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: With more than 60 presenters from police forces around the world, November’s Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency (ANZPAA) Police Conference 2025 explored the core question of what matters most in policing; and while artificial intelligence, technology and digital transformation were all high on the agenda, it was clear that the overriding focus was on putting people at the centre of policing.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: The 24/7, independent and confidential Mental Health Crisis Line is available to everyone in policing who is experiencing a mental health crisis, including suicidal thoughts. Created by Oscar Kilo, the National Police Wellbeing Service (NPWS), the line has made and received more than 200 calls since it went live in July.

CHRISTMAS MESSAGE: For most of us the Christmas and New Year break is a time to relax and enjoy the company of family and friends; but for the many police officers and staff enduring some of their busiest nights of the year, and others coping with the stresses of the job as well as the pressures of the season, it can be a struggle to feel festive, says Policing Insight Editor Keith Potter.

INTERVIEW: Police forces across England and Wales need central support to embed “a more consistent, nationally-led approach” to investigator wellbeing rather than the current ad-hoc activities and initiatives at a local level, as Sarah-Jayne Bray, Programme Manager for the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Recruitment, Retention and Wellbeing of Investigators portfolio, explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.